An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team began bailout talks in Sri Lanka on Monday, with police called to escort top government officials to the negotiations after protesters blockaded the finance ministry.
A nine-member IMF team which arrived in the commercial capital, Colombo, held talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on how to structure what will be Sri Lanka’s 17th loan programme with the global lender.
“The prime minister commenced discussions with the IMF team,” Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement.
Economic mismanagement and the COVID-19 pandemic have left Sri Lanka battling its worst financial problems in seven decades, and a lack of foreign exchange has stalled imports of essentials, including fuel, food and medicines.
The island nation of 22 million people was scrambling to get fuel shipments in the next three days, the energy minister told Reuters, as public disaffection grew because of a persistent shortage of diesel and petrol.
Sri Lanka suspended payment on 12 billion dollars of foreign debt in April and sought IMF support to put its messy public finances on track and access bridge financing.
However, public distress at the prolonged shortages was growing, and protesters blocked an entrance to the finance ministry and police had to fetch a top official to attend the IMF talks.
“The protesters were not letting him leave. So the police had to go in and get him out,” a government source who declined to be identified told Reuters.
Police said they had arrested 21 people for blocking the gates of the ministry which adjoin the office of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, outside of which protesters have staged a sit-in since early April.