COLOMBO. A Sri Lankan delegation is headed to Washington next week, looking to secure up to US$4 billion (S$5.4 billion) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders to help the island nation pay for food and fuel imports and limit debt defaults.
The team led by newly appointed Finance Minister Ali Sabry hopes to start talks with the lender of last resort on Monday and secure aid as early as a week after their negotiations.
“We need immediate emergency funding to get Sri Lanka back on track,” Mr Sabry said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, while pegging the funding need this year at US$3-4 billion. “Our appeal to them is to release it as soon as possible.”
Mr. Sabry will be joined for the talks by central bank head Nandalal Weerasinghe and Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana. Both had stints with the IMF.
Still, political turmoil at home, with street protests by citizens calling for the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa only make the job of convincing the IMF to lend money more difficult. The US$81 billion economies faced US$8.6 billion in debt obligations this year before it suspended payments on foreign loans to preserve cash to pay for essential food and fuel imports.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 16, 2022-Ausgabe von The Straits Times.
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