COLOMBO: The IMF on Wednesday ruled out a fresh bail-out for Sri Lanka, which had hoped to secure loans of more than $4.0 billion to restructure expensive debt taken on by the previous regime.

Much of the country’s post-war infrastructure under the administration of former president Mahinda Rajapakse was funded with Chinese debt and the new government had hoped to retire some of those loans.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake travelled to Washington last month to try to secure loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

But IMF experts who reviewed Sri Lanka’s economy during a nine-day visit said the Indian Ocean island was not facing an immediate crisis.

Delegation leader Todd Schneider said Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves were comfortable compared to 2009, when it obtained a $2.6bn bailout at the height of a civil war.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2015

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