Sri Lanka resumes bailout discussions with IMF, finance ministry says

Drivers force auto rickshaws in a line to get petrol from a gasoline station, amid Sri Lanka’s economic disaster, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

NEW DELHI, July 29 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka has resumed complex conversations with the Worldwide Financial Fund on a possible bailout just after a new federal government took office environment, the finance ministry claimed on Friday.

Discussions with the multilateral loan company started out in April under previous President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Sri Lankan federal government hopes to secure an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) – which would be conditional on producing economic reforms – to assistance battle the worst economic crisis considering the fact that independence in 1948.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as president following Rajapaksa was ousted on July 13 by a common uprising next months of extreme shortages of gasoline, food stuff and medicines.

Wickremesinghe, who served six terms as prime minister, also hopes to restructure Sri Lanka’s personal debt.

The talks with IMF ended up remarkably profitable and Sri Lanka is doing work with advisers to reach consensus on a deal with collectors, the federal government reported.

The South Asian nation of 22 million has $12 billion overseas personal debt with private collectors. It defaulted on a bond payment previously this 12 months and is battling to shell out for imports of simple products.

Reporting by Krishna N. Das, Nupur Anand and Uditha Jayasinghe Modifying by Frank Jack Daniel and Catherine Evans

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