Sri Lankan President, presenting first budget, says IMF talks making progress
The Hindu
The Sri Lankan Parliament’s communications office last week said the lawmakers will debate the budget from Tuesday to Friday week
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on August 30 said that talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a bailout package for the crisis-hit country had reached a "successful level".
"We hope to start talks with creditors," Mr. Wickremesinghe, who also serves as Finance Minister, told Parliament as he presented his first budget since taking over as leader.
Officials hope the interim budget for the rest of the year will be followed by a staff-level agreement on extending much-needed IMF help for Sri Lanka to tackle its worst economic turmoil since independence from Britain in 1948.
The IMF has laid down debt restructuring as a key element to any facility being approved. Sri Lanka is in dire need of bridging finance after a bailout from the global lender.
President Wickremesinghe and a visiting IMF team last week analysed Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis as the two sides began crucial talks to finalise a bailout package and secure a staff-level agreement for the cash-strapped country.
The Sri Lankan Parliament’s communications office last week said the lawmakers will debate the budget from Tuesday to Friday week. They will vote on it after the debate.
The budget will seek an additional sum of LKR 929.4 billion to the originally approved figure of LKR 2,796.4 billion for 2021 as the increased government expenditure, it said.