COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — An International Monetary Fund team will visit Sri Lanka this month to conduct the seventh review of the country’s economic program and assess its broader economic outlook, the Fund said.
The team, led by Evan Papageorgiou, the IMF’s mission chief for Sri Lanka, will be in the country from Sept. 10 to 23 for discussions with government officials on the Seventh Review of Sri Lanka’s program under the Extended Fund Facility and the 2026 Article IV Consultation.
The mission will assess Sri Lanka’s progress in implementing economic reforms under the IMF-backed program, as well as recent macroeconomic developments. The Fund said the team would communicate its findings at the conclusion of the visit.
The review comes as Sri Lanka continues an economic restructuring program undertaken after the country’s financial collapse in 2022, when severe shortages of foreign currency left the government struggling to pay for essential imports and ultimately led it to default on its foreign debt.
The IMF approved a four-year Extended Fund Facility for Sri Lanka in March 2023 worth about $3 billion. In May, its executive board completed the combined fifth and sixth reviews of the program.
The September mission follows a visit by Mr. Papageorgiou and his team from June 24 to 30, when IMF officials reviewed economic developments and discussed the government’s progress in implementing reforms.
At the end of that visit, the Fund said Sri Lanka’s economic recovery had faced renewed pressure from the Middle East conflict, including higher energy prices, rising inflation, slower growth in tourist arrivals and weaker accumulation of foreign reserves.
The IMF also said that maintaining the pace of reforms was critical to preserving fiscal and external stability, and that Sri Lanka’s performance under the program would be formally assessed during the Seventh Review.
