Sri Lanka’s Minister for Foreign Affairs M.U.M Ali Sabry has said that the talk of renegotiation of the IMF deal is very unfortunate. While speaking to media persons in Colombo today, Mr Sabry said that the IMF deal was based on 5 important pillars of Debt Sustainability Analysis which included the reduction of total Debt and debt payments to 95% and 4.5% of the GDP respectively. He added that under the deal, Sri Lanka is due to receive around 1.2 billion USD from the IMF and World Bank till next year. The minister emphasised that renegotiation of the deal will mean that these payments will be missed leading to a fall in rupee and a rise in inflation. The election-bound island nation has witnessed two key candidates Anura Kumara Dissanayaka of NPP and Sajith Premadasa of SJB mention renegotiation of the IMF deal in their campaigns. Sri Lanka witnessed its worst-ever economic crisis in 2022 which has the island suspend external debt commitments. After India had provided the southern neighbour with 4.5 billion USD in assistance and financing assurances, the IMF package of 2.9 Billion USD was secured.

The National People’s Power led by Mr. Dissanayaka, released its Election Manifesto earlier this week in which re-negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and addressing corruption-related matters featured.

Meanwhile, Mr Premadasa’s party and the incumbent President Mr Wickremasinghe‘s camp will unveil their manifestos tomorrow.