Friday Sep 25, 2026
Friday Sep 25, 2026
Friday, 25 September 2026 00:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
 |
| Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando |
The Finance Ministry has rejected media reports on Sri Lanka’s latest talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying the discussions concluded in Colombo on Wednesday were a technical round ahead of the Seventh Review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), not the final round of negotiations for the release of the seventh tranche.
Some local media had reported that the IMF mission ended without a staff-level agreement. Such an agreement is a preliminary deal between IMF staff and a country’s authorities, which must be approved by the IMF Executive Board before funds are released.
In a statement issued yesterday, Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando said some media outlets had described the technical committee meeting, held before the review linked to the seventh tranche, as the final round of discussions for its release.
He said the reports stemmed either from a lack of understanding of the accepted and specific technical process of the EFF program, or from an attempt to mislead the public and embarrass the Government.
According to the statement, the technical discussions were held in Colombo from 10 to 23 September, with the participation of IMF representatives and officials of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
Dr. Fernando said that over the past two years, after lifting the economy out of a downturn caused by internal and external factors, the Government had succeeded in mobilising domestic revenue and building the foreign reserves needed for essential imports. He said that, at a time when the public is receiving the benefits, irresponsibly publishing misleading reports that could prevent those benefits from spreading further harms the country.
The statement did not say when a staff-level agreement on the Seventh Review is expected.
Dr. Fernando read several headlines which he called misleading, and singled the Daily FT headline and report for being accurate.
Staff-level agreements on IMF reviews are often reached after a mission has left. However, the previous agreement, on the combined Fifth and Sixth Reviews, was reached at the end of an IMF mission that visited Sri Lanka from 26 March to 9 April 2026.
The IMF Executive Board completed those reviews on 27 May 2026, giving Sri Lanka access to about $ 695 million and bringing total disbursements under the program to about $ 2.4 billion.
The four-year EFF arrangement was approved by the IMF Executive Board on 20 March 2023 for a total of SDR 2.3 billion, or about $ 3 billion.
