IMF, Sri Lanka reach staff-level agreement for 3rd EFF review

COLOMBO, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and the Sri Lankan government have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the third review of Sri Lanka's economic reform program supported by the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the IMF said in a press release on Saturday.

The IMF said once the review is approved by IMF management and completed by the IMF Executive Board, Sri Lanka will have access to about 333 million U.S. dollars in financing.

This would bring the total IMF financial support disbursed under the arrangement to about 1.33 billion dollars, the IMF said.

The IMF said that the new government's commitment to the program objectives has enhanced confidence and ensures policy continuity and sustaining the reform momentum is critical to safeguarding the hard-won gains under the program.

The IMF said the approval by IMF management and the IMF Executive Board is contingent on prior actions by Sri Lanka including the submission of the 2025 budget consistent with program objectives, the completion of financing assurances review, which will focus on confirming multilateral partners' committed financing contributions, and whether adequate progress has been made with the debt restructuring.

An IMF team led by Peter Breuer, senior mission chief for Sri Lanka, visited Colombo from Nov. 17 to 23, 2024.

In March 2023, the IMF approved a 48-month Extended Fund Facility arrangement, amounting to approximately 3 billion dollars, to support Sri Lanka's economic reform and recovery efforts.■