IMF says Sri Lanka hasn’t sought financial assistance

Sri Lanka has not sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, its spokesman Gerry Rice said on Thursday.

Rice told a regular news briefing that IMF stands ready to discuss options for the country to deal with its debt burden.

He clarified that the staff team from the IMF in Colombo was related to the Article IV Consultation. 

The Executive Board expects to discuss the consultations probably later this month towards the end of this month, Mr. Rice added. “I can tell you we had a mission that was aiming to strengthen, technical assistance mission, aiming to strengthen the macro-fiscal unit at the Ministry of Finance as part of our capacity development activities. And that was conducted virtually and is just concluding almost as we speak.”

Meanwhile, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is looking for progress at next week’s G20 finance leaders’ meeting in Indonesia for progress on IMF proposals to strengthen a G20 debt restructuring framework, Rice said further.

The proposals include an immediate debt service standstill for countries that seek debt restructuring and specific timelines for completing debt restructurings.

-with inputs from agencies