By: Staff Writer
May 01, Colombo (LNW): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants Sri Lanka to work on governance issues and to also stick to the IMF supported program.
Krishna Srinivasan, IMF Director of the Asia and Pacific Department noted that Sri Lankans faced a very difficult challenge when they embarked on the IMF program.
“And so far, what we’ve seen is performance under the program has been pretty good, and that is reflected in the outcomes.
For example, GDP growth has been better than it had been forecast. You see some bottoming out, some green shoots, as I would say. Inflation is coming down quite sharply from 70 percent to, you know, well below. — what’s the number now? I forget the right number, but it’s coming down very sharply.
Reserves are building up. So overall, the country is doing well under the program, and the reform measures your country has taken are pretty significant,” he told reporters Tuesday.
However, he noted that the road ahead is not easy and there are many more things to be done.
They’ve also moved on issues like governance and reducing corruption and so on, which as are part of the government’s program.
But going forward, the challenges remain. You have to stick to this program so that you can make a durable exit, and the economy comes out of the crisis on a durable basis, comes out of the crisis.
So it’s important to make sure that you work on the fiscal adjustment package, on governance issues which are part of the program,” he said.
Srinivasan said that if the Government continues with adhering to the program there will be much better results down the road.
He noted the fact that growth has come back stronger than expected, and inflation is lower than many people expected are very good signs that the program is delivering.
