An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team will be arriving in Sri Lanka for the second review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme which is scheduled to commence on March 7, according to Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe said.
Minister Semasinghe said that he believes the second review for the third disbursement under the extended fund facility will be conducted for a period of around two weeks, during a press briefing at the Presidential Media Centre on Wednesday (28). The Minister speaking to the media said: “The second review will commence from March 7 and we are very confident that it will be a smoother review than the first review.”
“The reason behind this is because the first review had been the initial stages of the implementation of the policy decisions the Government had taken”.
The IMF had previously stated that the second review of Sri Lanka’s US$ 2.9 billion bailout could be completed within the first half of 2024, provided that the Government manages to meet debt restructuring and revenue targets set under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
The progress in meeting the key commitments set under the IMF-supported programme is scheduled to be formally assessed in the context of the second review of the EFF arrangement alongside the forthcoming 2024 Article IV consultation, while evaluating and assessing Sri Lanka’s economic health.
The IMF Executive Board had cleared the first review of Sri Lanka’s US$ 2.9 billion bailout in December 2023, where about US$ 337 million in funds were provided to help tackle the fallout from the country’s worst financial crisis that happened in decades.
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