All parties should come to an agreement on IMF report – Ranil

Ranil Wickremesinghe

It’s the duty of all parties in Sri Lanka to initiate a dialogue and come to an agreement on the report which the IMF is expected to release on Sri Lanka shortly,, Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today (February 16).

“The IMF according to section 4 of its mandate usually goes for a dialogue with all its member states and issues a statement on each member. A team of IMF officials visited Sri Lanka in December last year. We have received information that it will release a report next week. It is essential and the duty of all political parties to come to an agreement on it, it is our duty to initiate such an exercise. We have to think of Millennials and Genz which are the younger population. These groups will blame us if we fail in our duty,” Wickremesinghe said.

“Sri Lanka has failed to resolve it’s FOREX crisis. The dollar is expected to go up to Rs. 270 and even up to Rs. 300. The population of the poor in Sri Lanka is expected to increase by 500,000 while the middle class is expected to crash. All transactions pertaining to foreign currency are done according to the Hawala system moving away from the banking system. The total foreign debt services Sri Lanka has to settle this year is dollars 6 billion. Sri Lanka is yet to talk to any institution such as the IMF with regard to resolving the crisis” he added.

(Source: Daily Mirror – By Yohan Perera)