Senior Mission Chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Sri Lanka, Peter Breuer has expressed hope that Sri Lanka would reach agreements concerning debt restructuring ahead of the second review of the program.
Addressing the media today, Peter Breuer said that a swift completion of final agreements with official creditors and resolving with external private creditors remain critical.
He further said that Sri Lankan authorities have made commendable progress with putting debt on a path towards sustainability, stressing that the execution of the domestic debt restructuring was an important milestone.
“The economic reform program implemented by the Sri Lankan authorities is yielding the first signs of recovery. However, challenges remain as these improvements need to translate into improved living conditions for Sri Lanka’s people,” he said.
The Senior IMF Mission Chief also noted that swift progress towards the introduction of a progressive property tax is key to ensuring fair burden sharing while sustaining the revenue-based consolidation.
“Property tax will help Sri Lanka to take the quantum leap to achieve the IMF programme’s goals,” he said.
On safeguarding the stability of the financial sector and bolstering its capacity to support economic growth, Peter Breuer said the authorities need to urgently finalise amendments to the Banking Act in line with their commitment under the IMF-supported program, implement the bank recapitalisation plan and strengthen the financial supervision and crisis management framework.
A group of officials from the IMF arrived in Sri Lanka last week (Jan 11) to engage in discussions for one week, while studying the progress of economic reforms carried out within the country, following the IMF’s approval of the first review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement for Sri Lanka. (NewsWire)