Officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Sri Lanka on Wednesday to review the $1.5 billion loan given to the country.
The representatives, Jaewoo Lee and Eteri Kyintradgze met with the Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake, and the secretary to the treasury, R.H.S Samaratunga.
“We had a budget deficit of 6.7 percent of the GDP last year and this year’s target will be 5.4 percent. it will be further reduced to 4.7 percent in 2017,” Mr Karunanayake said at the meeting, thanking the IMF for its assistance.
“The government was very clear in gradually reducing the overall fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2020," he added.
The finance ministry said in a statement, "the IMF mission representatives admired the progress made in the right direction under the reforms agenda. They also expressed hope that the Unity Government of Sri Lanka would be able to achieve the desired economic progress in the near future as stipulated in their reforms agenda."