IMF urges Sri Lanka to tighten monetary policy

Colombo, April 26 An official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to tighten its monetary policy, raise taxes and adopt flexible exchange rates to overcome its ongoing debt crisis.

"We've had very good, fruitful, technical discussions on preparations for the negotiations with authorities over the past weekend and a couple of days before," Xinhua news agency quoted Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf, acting director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, as saying at an online event.

Finance Minister Ali Sabry and Governor of the Sri Lankan Central Bank Nandalal Weerasinghe recently concluded a visit to the IMF to discuss financing help for the country.

Earlier Sri Lanka suspended external debt payments.

"The requirement for fund lending will be progress toward debt sustainability. Monetary policy has to be tightened to keep inflation in check. We see a need for flexible exchange rates," she said.

Gulde-Wolf did not comment on the value of any IMF package, or an estimated time needed to come into an agreement with Sri Lanka.

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