Colombo: The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) today approved an immediate disbursement of USD 408
million for Sri Lanka, which is recovering from decades old
ethnic conflict that ended in May last year.
The third tranche of the disbursement to the island
nation by IMF takes the total amount under the arrangement to
Sri Lanka to SDR 689.0 million (about USD 1,019.4 million).
The total amount of IMF resources made available under
the arrangement equals 400 percent of the country's quota, the
official website reported here.
The executive board of the IMF had approved a 20-month
stand-by arrangement (SBA) for Sri Lanka with an amount
equivalent to SDR 1.65 billion (about USD 2.6 billion) to
support the country's economic reform programme.
At the end of a mission to review the progress of the
loan programme in May, the head of the IMF mission to Sri
Lanka Brian Aitken had said the monetary institute was waiting
for Sri Lanka's 2010 budget, which is to be presented to the
Parliament today to release the third tranche of the loan.
Accordingly, the review to grant the third tranche of the
loan approved on July 24, 2009 took place on the eve of Sri
Lanka's 2010 budget presentation to the Parliament.
The IMF said in a Press Release that it also approved a
request by the Sri Lankan authorities for a one-year extension
of the SBA.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 17:07