IMF team to visit Sri Lanka to assess progress, predicts growth picking up from 1.5% in 2024

Sri Lanka will have a pickup in growth starting from 1.5% in 2024, IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department Director Krishna Srinivasan told the IMF Economic Outlook press briefing held on the sidelines of the 56th Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting yesterday in Incheon Republic of Korea.

 

“The programme we have in place which has been agreed upon with the government and other stakeholders addresses many aspects that are not right for Sri Lanka which is macro stabilization, price stabilization, governance reform and social safety net. So the programme has lots of reform embedded in it and implementation is the key,” Srinivasan said.

 

He said that if the government comes through with all these reforms and implements them well in the context of debt restructuring by September the country will be on the path of recovery. The programme itself is quite an ambitious programme in terms of fiscal, monetary and governance reforms, he said.

 

Srinivasan said they would visit Sri Lanka in about two weeks to see how implementation is coming along with the restructuring process.

 

The IMF forecasts a 2.8%  global and a 4.5% growth in the Asian region in 2023 and a 3% and 4.4% growth in 2024 respectively.