IMF delegation to visit Sri Lanka by August end: Central Bank Governor

Sri Lanka is in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis that has led to severe shortages of fuel and other essentials

The Sri Lankan government's negotiations with the IMF for a bailout package have made "good progress," the Central Bank Governor said on Thursday, indicating that a top delegation of the Washington-based lender is expected to arrive here at the end of this month to finalise a staff-level agreement.

Sri Lanka is in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis that has led to severe shortages of fuel and other essentials.

The island nation of 22 million also witnessed a major political churn in recent times following massive mass protests that forced former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign from his post.

"The IMF programme is making a good progress, and an IMF mission is planning to visit Sri Lanka towards the end of this month to reach a staff-level agreement on a policy package,” news portal newsfirst.lk quoted Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe as saying.

Mr. Weerasinghe said that after Sri Lanka reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF, the country will have to engage with its creditors on debt restructuring, the report said.

"We will be reaching out to the bilateral and commercial creditors once we reach the overall debt targets and the staff-level agreement," he said.

In July, Mr. Rajapaksa's ally and Sri Lanka's newly-appointed president Ranil Wickremesinghe said he had aimed to reach an agreement with the IMF by early August, but the political turmoil in the country forced the international lender to push back the agreement by a month.