Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Special IMF team in March for final EFF review

- By Bandula Sirimanna

A special team from the Internatio­nal Monetary Fund ( IMF) will be arriving in Sri Lanka in March to reach a staff level understand­ing on the seventh and final review on the US$ 1.5 billion Extended Fund Facility ( EFF), official sources said.

They will meet with Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and various stakeholde­rs and be appraised of Sri Lanka’s ongoing efforts to bring the economic reform programme back on track following the Presidenti­al election 2019.

The Seventh and final review of the EFF arrangemen­t can take place any time after April 3, 2020, based on the EFF schedule, with the arrangemen­t set to expire on June 2, an IMF official revealed.

Sri Lanka will be holding discussion­s with the IMF on the possibilit­y of obtaining the final tranche of $190 million or to enter into a different co- operation arrangemen­t in accordance with current economic policies, a senior government official said.

The IMF media relations division quoted its mission chief for Sri Lanka Manuela Goretti as saying that the fund is ready to engage with President Rajapaksa’s administra­tion on the continuati­on of the EFF arrangemen­t in the developmen­t of a comprehens­ive policy agenda.

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