Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's foreign reserves USD 50 mn
Colombo: Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ali Sabry said on Wednesday that the country's current useable foreign reserves were less than $50 million.
Sabry told Parliament that Sri Lanka should have sought assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) much earlier and said that entering an IMF programme would take at least six months.
The government should have floated the rupee earlier too, he said.
The Minister said discussions with several countries to obtain bridging finance were underway.
The Minister said Sri Lanka's foreign useable reserves were at $7 billion by the end of 2019.
Pointing out that the government's tax revenues have decreased to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product, Sabry said the budget 2022 was no longer realistic and the government hopes to present a new budget proposal in Parliament soon.
Sri Lanka has been suffering a shortage of foreign exchange amid its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
(With Xinhua/UNI inputs)
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