Improved foreign investor confidence in country:

IMF SBA next tranche in January

Charumini de Silva

The next tranche of the US $ 2.6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) standby agreement (SBA) will be disbursed in early next year as the IMF staff mission will present their report on January 26, the Central Bank Deputy Governor, Dharma Dheerasinghe told Daily News Business.

He said “The IMF is encouraged by the assessments for the release of the sixth tranche of the SBA facility as we have satisfied their criteria.

The SBA facility improved the foreign investor confidence in the country. Thus, many multilateral and bilateral investors invested in Sri Lanka in various industries and projects.

These projects enhanced the economic activities of the country while strengthening the financial system.” The country was able to attract a significant number of foreign investments and at present the country is having foreign reserves of over US $ six billion.

Having strong reserves is important and it creates stability of the economy. The economy is likely to show a strong growth this year, Dheerasinghe said.

A stable financial system creates a favourable environment to depositors and investors and encourages banking and financial institutions and markets to function effectively; hence promoting investment and economic growth.