“Sri Lanka has missed its target of obtaining Executive Board approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to the delay in getting financial assurances from its creditors, and expects the IMF approval to be granted by mid-January,” said Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.
Speaking in an interview with TVDerana last Thursday (8), he said that Sri Lanka was unable to obtain financial assurances from creditors in the month of November as expected in the timeline presented to the public because certain creditors had internal issues to iron out.
“We were not able to get the financial assurances in the month of November. Had we been able to get them in November, we were targeting 19 December for the next IMF board meeting (to obtain IMF approval),” he said.
However, he added that Sri Lanka had missed that target due to certain reasons that he was not at liberty to disclose.
Moreover, he said that there was a delay in sharing information with all creditors on an equal, comparable, and open basis, as Sri Lanka was unable to share the necessary information with all creditors at the same time.
However, the Governor said that, as reported by the media, several partners such as Paris Club member nations, India, and China have already indicated their willingness to support Sri Lanka.
However, he said that Sri Lanka needs to get its creditors to agree to express their willingness to extend financial assistance in a formal statement to the IMF, which will then need a maximum of two to three weeks before External Board approval is obtained for the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
He said that Sri Lanka is almost done with the process, and added that if the country can get the necessary financial assurances in December, the IMF’s Executive Board can then approve the programme in January.