IMF delegation to visit Sri Lanka next week to resume aid talks
The HinduThe International Monetary Fund on August 19 said a team will travel to Sri Lanka next week to resume aid talks that were interrupted amid the unrest that led to the resignation of the nation’s president. Staff from the Washington-based crisis lender plan to visit Colombo during August 24-31 “to continue discussions with the Sri Lankan authorities on economic and financial reforms and policies,” the IMF said in a statement. However, the country’s public debt is “unsustainable,” which means any IMF loan program “would require adequate assurances by Sri Lanka’s creditors that debt sustainability will be restored.” Formal discussions on a new package for the cash-strapped nation began in June but were thrown off course by the political upheaval that forced now ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country, amid dramatic scenes of protesters occupying the presidential palace. Mr. Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the island nation’s economy to a point where it has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for its 22 million people, with four out of five Sri Lankans skipping meals.