Lanka awaits emergency aid to the tune of USD 500 mn from ADB, World Bank in coming months, says Finance Minister Sabry

By Ifham Nizam

USD 500 million out of the total amount of funds sought by Sri Lanka is expected to come as emergency aid from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank in the next six months, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu in the Twitter said that U.S. welcomes Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund working towards a sustainable solution to relieve the economic hardships for its people.

The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs said that Assistant Secretary Lu, Sri Lankan Finance Minister Sabry and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe discussed matters on overcoming the ongoing economic challenges in Sri Lanka.

Sabry also said during the interview that Sri Lanka might take nearly three weeks to appoint advisers to guide an overhaul of its debt.

He said that Sri Lanka was seeking as much as USD four billion this year to help ease shortages of food, fuel and medicines as its foreign reserves had dried up and it was heading for a default on its international debt.

“Our talks have been centered around restructuring, and along with that to go forward for a proper programme with the IMF,” Minister Sabry said. An IMF programme “requires debt restructuring when they come to the finding that it is not sustainable in the long run.”