Discussions with IMF ended successfully – PM tells Parliament utter lies

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that Sri Lanka’s discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had ended successfully. 

He stated that the next step is to submit a report on debt restructuring.

Wickremesinghe stated this while delivering a special statement in Parliament on Tuesday (05) regarding the progress of negotiations with the IMF.

Sri Lanka has so far held several rounds of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile an IMF team had visited Sri Lanka last month for talks on a bailout program. The IMF team had visited visiting Colombo from June 20 to 30 to continue talks on what would be Sri Lanka’s 17th rescue program.

Wickremesinghe also presented the road map with proposed solutions to the existing economic problem to the Parliament today. 

The Prime Minister also said that by the end of this year, Sri Lanka will have to pay USD 3,489 million in debt.

He said that the debt will be USD 5,862 million in 2023, USD 4,916 million in 2024, USD 6,287 million in 2025, USD 4,030 million in 2026 and USD 4,381 million in 2027, etc.

“That means we have to pay USD 28 billion in total. This is where our debt burden lies. At the end of 2021, the government’s total debt burden is Rs. 17,589 million. By March 2022, it will be Rs. 21,969 million. This is the real situation. Today, our national debt is 140 percent of the gross domestic product.” 

With the IMF, we hope to make the gross domestic product 95 percent by 2032. Also, today our income is 7.3% of the country’s gross domestic income. We are looking to make it 14% by 2026. If we look at these statistics, it is clear what happened to the country.”

Meanwhile PM Wickramasinghe also said that if the leader of the National People’s Power (NPP), Anura Kumara Dissanayake, is able to rebuild the economy, he and the cabinet are ready to stepdown and make way for that.

Speaking further, the Prime Minister said that he is ready to provide NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake with the opportunity if there is a possibility to recover the economy within 06 months as claimed by the latter.