World Bank has no new financing plans for crisis-hit Sri Lanka: Report

The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, until the Indian Ocean nation has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place, the lender said.

In a statement, the World Bank said Sri Lanka needed to adopt structural reforms that focus on economic stabilisation and tackle the root causes of its crisis, which has starved it of foreign exchange and led to shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

“The World Bank Group is deeply concerned about the dire economic situation and its impact on the people of Sri Lanka,” it said.

The bank is repurposing resources under existing loans to help alleviate shortages of essential, it added.
 

Sri Lanka has resumed technical discussions with the International Monetary Fund on a potential bailout, the finance ministry said.

The government hopes to secure an Extended Fund Facility.