IMF announces $2.9 billion bailout for Sri Lanka

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to finalise a $2.9 billion bailout for Sri Lanka on March 20 that many hope will help turn around an economy grappling with its worst financial crisis in decades. Writing on Twitter earlier this March, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said she welcomes that the progress made by Sri Lankan authorities in taking decisive policy actions and obtaining financing assurances from all their major creditors. Along with securing assurances from its major creditors like India and China, the crisis-hit island approved an anti-corruption legislation that is a key clause in the actions needed for the bailout approval, a government spokesperson has said. Economic mismanagement coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic left Sri Lanka severely short of dollars for essential imports at the start of last year, tipping the country into its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.