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Poverty Reduction Growth Facility: IMF to reveal amount of assistance next week

by Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Washington-based International Monetary Fund will reveal next week the amount of assistance to be released to Sri Lanka under the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility.

IMF Senior Resident Representative in Colombo Jeremy Carter told the Daily News yesterday he was optimistic that the assistance granted will be substantial.

The Poverty Reduction Growth Facility is a line of assistance aimed at ensuring private sector led growth.

The allocation for Sri Lanka is SDR 413 million (around 1.37 billion) in a three year programme which will be on a seven instalment disbursement.

Carter said the IMF Review team which was in Colombo on the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) was satisfied with the progress made by the Government on the management of the economy and the process of the Fund in presenting the PRGF report to the Executive Board of the Fund was on an even keel. He stressed the Fund's role in assisting countries to boost their Foreign Exchange Reserves. Sri Lanka's reserves stand at a billion dollars and the minimum amount has to be over 500 million dollars.

Asked whether the IMF was happy with the reforms process, he said that the Fund was not satisfied, but happy.

The numbers are not known yet but the amounts will be decided by the end of next week, he told this newspaper.

The Daily News Business pages in its January 15 edition reported under the headline "PRGF report before the IMF Executive Board in March" that the Fund's submission of the PGRF will be based on the findings of the review mission and quoted Carter as having said that the proposed Facility would be an anti-poverty strategy which will be propelled through private sector led growth.

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