IMF says SL on course to return to global capital markets

Thursday, 24 September 2026 00:26 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday said Sri Lanka remains on track to return to international capital markets in 2027 or thereabouts and welcomed the sovereign rating upgrade by Fitch.

“We still think Sri Lanka is in a good trajectory to achieving this in 2027 or thereabouts. And that should be the goal, because every country needs to have a good ability to access funds, both in domestic markets, as it already has, as well as international markets,” IMF Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Evan Papageorgiou told journalists yesterday after concluding the visit in connection to the Seventh Review of the $ 3 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

The original IMF program envisaged Sri Lanka raising $ 1.5 billion from international capital markets in 2027.

Papageorgiou said Fitch Ratings’ recent upgrade of Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’ was also a step in the right direction.

He said that although the latest economic data is still being assessed, earlier assumptions about market access still hold.