Sri Lanka met 35 IMF commitments and failed 7 by end-July

Abstract

The share of Sri Lanka’s 100 trackable commitments in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme for which no data has been made available to assess progress — despite passing the agreed deadline — has increased from 9% in March to 15% in July. The lack of information to make a reasonable assessment about these commitments highlights a growing lack of visibility on the government’s progress on the IMF programme. The rise in the number of commitments, on which the achievement is “unknown”, could mean one of two things. One, the government has failed to meet these commitments and is not making the information public to delay the recognition of failure. Two, the government does not see the public or parliament as important stakeholders in programme implementation — and is uninterested in providing them with critical information.