INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Sri Lanka has actually made significant development in implementing economic reforms, placing itself to advance rapidly towards the third
evaluation of the Sri Lanka EFF program, which is turning up soon, a senior International Monetary Fund official stated on Thursday.Krishna
Srinivasan, director of the International Monetary Funds Asia and Pacific Department, noted that when the new federal government took office
recently, he led a high level team to Colombo to talk about and to engage with the authorities.He stated that they some really efficient
discussions with the new government and its team which the conversations are continuing this week throughout the IMF-World Bank Annual
Meetings.Now, there was broad agreement, I would say unanimous agreement, that Sri Lanka, which was tearing at the abyss in 2022, has come a
long method in regards to carrying out reforms which have resulted in some tough won gains, as you can know.Youll note that growth has
actually been positive the last four quarters
So there is agreement that the new government, you understand from the brand-new government that it wish to protect and construct on the
difficult won gains under the program, Srinivasan said.He mentioned that under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program they have elements
which attend to some of the priorities of the new government, including in regards to social protection therefore on.But the details on the
program are continuing and theyll be occurring this week in Washington, he added.And we are motivated by what we have actually heard so far
and hoping that, you know, we can move quick towards the third evaluation which will turn up soon, he informed a press briefing during the
IMF and World Bank yearly conferences in Washington.In action to a concern on Sri Lankas financial obligation restructuring, Srinivasan
noted that the federal government has reached arrangements with the main lenders, an agreement in concept with the private lenders which the
next action would be to reach a formal agreement with all creditors.And thats a huge advance
And of course thats not completion
Theres a lot more work to be performed in terms of continuing with the reforms due to the fact that a long way to precede youre on the
course of strong and sustainable healing, he emphasized.Asked about macro linked bonds, he specified this is something which is a settlement
between the countrys creditors, the nations advisors and the creditors.We dont get associated with the sort of instruments that they
negotiate on and so on etc
What we are concerned about is whether these instruments and the restructuring they reach are one consistent with our program targets on
financial obligation and so on, and that theres comparability of treatment throughout creditors.However, he acknowledged that macro
connected bonds have ended up being popular and that everything depends, country to country, how the lenders and advisors tackle it.So its
not for me to state that this is going to be the future of all debt restructuring
It differs from nation to nation
Weve seen plain vanilla bonds being exchanged and you have these type of bonds in other countries, Srinivasan stated.
