Sri Lanka has only around 50 million USD, usable foreign reserves and the government is working hard to bridging financial needs unitil finalize the assistance from the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said.
Making a special statement on current financial situation to the Parliament Sabry said that people should know the country’s real situation.
Minister further said that wrong policy decisions made by his government such as major tax cut at the beginning of the government , delaying on debt restructuring and reluctance to go to the IMF have impacted badly to the economy and deteriorated the 7 Billion reserves to few hundred millions . He further described those wrong decisions as a historical mistake.
Meanwhile the Finance Minister said that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund were progressing well but it may take about six months to wrap up a deal. He too pointed out the need of restructuring the debt to qualify for IMF assistance.
According to the Minister Sri Lanka has sought financial assistance from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and some Countries for bridge financing and already World Bank has provided 400 Million USG and he hope that Bank would provide another 700 billion USD in the coming months.
