SL's Opp declines President's invitation to attend IMF review meeting

COLOMBO: The Opposition in Sri Lanka on Sunday declined the invitation by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to attend a review meeting of the IMF bailout programme scheduled for Monday to help the cash-strapped nation to overcome the financial crisis it has been facing since 2022.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday last began its two-week-long second review of the March 2023 bailout of USD 2.9 billion spanning over 4 years. Two tranches of USD 330 million each were released in March and December of last year.

Wickremesinghe, who is also the finance minister, is the steer of the programme which had resulted in a series of unpopular reforms being set in to put Sri Lanka’s bankrupt economy back on course.

The chief Opposition whip Lakshman Kiriella told reporters here that he has been in touch with the Opposition parties and they have decided that they would not attend the meeting.

Separately, giving his reasons for skipping the IMF meeting, the main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said Wickremesinghe’s invitation was disingenuous and lacking in good faith.

The Opposition parties have been critical of the IMF-dictated reforms claiming that they had placed an immense burden on the population already reeling in the unprecedented economic crisis where Sri Lanka in mid-April 2022 declared its first-ever sovereign default.

A statement issued by Wickremesinghe's office on Thursday said that the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the National People’s Power Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the leader of the main Tamil minority party Sivagnanam Sritharan have been invited to attend the meeting with the IMF on March 11.

The Tamil party TNA sources said its senior politician R Sampanthan might attend the meeting.

Wickremesinghe -- in the face of stiff criticism of his unpopular reforms by the opposition who claimed that they would opt to renegotiate the bailout’s conditions -- has been insistent that Sri Lanka was faced only with the option of remaining with the IMF programme to stabilise its economy.