IMF staff team meets President Wickremesinghe
May 11, 2023 04:27 pm
A team of staff from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met with President Ranil Wickremesinghe this morning (11 May), following their arrival in Sri Lanka.
The IMF team is led by Peter Breuer, IMF Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, Asia and Pacific Department, according to State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe, while Department Director Krishna Srinivasan, is expected to join the team tomorrow (12 May) until 15 May.
Srinivasan will join both Breuer and Sarwat Jahan, the IMF Resident Representative in Sri Lanka to chair a press briefing due to be held in Colombo on 15 May, while the rest of the delegates will remain in the island until 23 May.
The IMF said this visit comes as part of the regular consultations between the global lender and the island nation, ahead of the first review mission later this year.
The IMF staff team’s visit comes days after the first meeting of Sri Lanka’s official bilateral creditors committee, during which the island nation’s authorities formally presented a request for debt treatment. China, Saudi Arabia and Iran were in attendance as observers.
The committee, co-chaired by India, Japan and France, consists of 17 members and includes Paris Club creditors as well as other official bilateral creditors.
