Whenever there is a shortage of dollars, Sri Lanka manages to borrow dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In Sri Lanka, which is mired in a severe financial crisis due to the heavy debt burden, there is a dilemma of having no dollar reserves even for the importation of essential commodities.
Whenever there is a shortage of dollars, Sri Lanka manages to borrow dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
From 1950 to 2016, Sri Lanka received a total of 16 large sums of dollars from the IMF.
The IMF came forward in 2009 to provide $ 260 billion in loan assistance to revive the Sri Lankan economy, which was severely affected by the 2008 global recession and 26 years of civil war.
In 2016, the IMF provided $ 1.5 billion in loan assistance to address the dollar deficit created when Ranil Wickremesinghe was Sri Lanka’s prime minister.
When granting these loans, the IMF imposed strict conditions to restructure the Sri Lankan economy.
But after the regime change in 2019, when Mahinda Rajapaksa became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, in direct opposition to the IMF’s conditions, he reduced taxes and greatly increased spending.
Due to this, confirmed in 2016
Of the $ 150 billion loan, up to $ 130 billion was disbursed, with the remainder
The IMF has refused to provide $ 200 million.
In this context, as a result of the Easter Day bombings in Sri Lanka in 2019, foreign tourist arrivals were severely affected.
As a result of the corona effects in 2020, the Sri Lankan economy was completely paralyzed and foreign exchange reserves plummeted.
The Sri Lankan government is actively trying to get a dollar loan back from the IMF to deal with the current economic downturn.