Ranil says IMF ready to help Sri Lanka overcome crisis

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament yesterday (5) that he had personally spoken with top officials at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on the worsening economic crisis in the country, and possible financial assistance from those institutions.

Making a statement on the current economic crisis followed by public unrest, Wickreemsinghe said that the IMF was ready to assist Sri Lanka in overcoming the crisis.

“However, we have to obtain short term credit facilities that could be secured from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for urgent needs such as medicinal drugs, until the IMF support is worked out. Also, we can request help from our friendly nations such as India, China, South Korea, Japan and the European Union. For all of these, we need to prepare a proper mechanism to overcome this situation,” he pointed out.

Wickremesinghe said that it was a crisis of epic proportions which he never witnessed in his entire political life. He also said that a relief budget should be introduced instead of a development budget.