“Creditors of Sri Lanka have assured to provide their fullest support to Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process,’’ State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament yesterday.
He said that the creditors of Sri Lanka have assured to provide their fullest support to Sri Lanka to overcome this difficult situation by helping to restore stability in the economy.
The Minister said productive meetings took place on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings from October 10-16 in Washington DC.
He said that during the meetings with the World Bank Executive Director and IMF Executive Director for Sri Lanka and other member countries in the respective constituencies, Sri Lanka was assured the fullest support to obtain assistance from the IMF and the World Bank Group.
The Minister also said that discussions were held with the Managing Director and the Deputy Managing Directors of the IMF on a bilateral basis, officials of World Bank Group, including the Managing Director, Operations of the World Bank, the Vice President of South Asian Region of the World Bank (WB), the Regional Vice President of International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the International Development Association (IDA) Team of the World Bank.
A major emphasis of this year’s Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group was placed on the impact of successive crises which have created unprecedented challenges for developing countries. During the Plenary Session of the Annual Meetings, the Managing Director of the IMF outlined the grim challenges ahead for the IMF’s 190 member countries.
Her message was that the world is entering a new danger zone, one that is more prone to shocks that can quickly knock countries off course, hence, countries need to be more proactive to build resilience, so that right choices can be made to avoid the worst outcomes.