Sri Lanka’s only viable recovery avenue is to continue current IMF-backed path: Anura
Last Updated on February 8, 2025 6:35 am
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stressed that Sri Lanka’s only viable path for recovery is to continue on the current International Monetary Fund (IMF)-backed path and to build up the economy on this foundation.
He shared these remarks at the 26th Presidential Export Awards Ceremony held in Colombo yesterday.
“Either we can collapse with this foundation or we can stand firm on this foundation and build our economy on a firm footing,” he said.
Due to the bankruptcy declared in 2022, Dissanayake noted that the country has lost the ability to implement an economic development programme based on its own agenda.
In this context, he acknowledged that it remains critical to meet the key parameters agreed with the IMF. This includes boosting government revenue to 15.1 percent of GDP, achieving a 2.3 percent balance in primary account, maintaining government expenditure at 13.8 percent of GDP and remaining within the borrowing limit, this year.
“Some decisions may not be favourable for the exporters; some decision could be an obstacle for our future trajectory,” he added.
However, he reiterated that it’s critical to stay with the IMF programme as it’s essential to regain confidence on the Sri Lankan economy in a global context. Having said that, Dissanayake vowed to extend maximum support to Sri Lanka’s exporters within the IMF guardrails.
“We need to go for favourable FTAs in order to find markets for our exporters,” he said.
Accordingly, he noted that the government is considering two FTAs in this context.
In addition, Dissanayake shared that the government is moving to reform the entire diplomatic service in focusing on exporters.
Further, he assured the government’s commitment to extend technical support to the exporters in developing new products and services and finding market opportunities.
In terms of energy, he stressed that the government is working on stabilising the energy prices, with a focus on the renewable energy sector.
He pointed out that recently the 50MW wind power project in Mannar and 120MW solar power project in Sampur have set industry benchmarks in both wind and solar.
“We cannot have the electricity prices going down in the rainy season and the prices going up again in the dry season. We need stability,” he said.
According to him, the unit price of wind power in Mannar is set at 4.65 US cent and solar power is at 5.90 US cent. Moving forward, he noted that Sri Lanka would be able to award the future power projects under these benchmarks.
“However, we need a fair amount of time to build new power plants and therefore, I am asking you to be patient,” he said.