Wrapping up Sri Lanka external debt deals critical, property tax needed: IMF

ECONOMYNEXT –Sri Lanka’s economy is starting to recover under a stabilization program, and further progress has to be made on debt restructuring while monetary policy decisions have to be prudent to keep inflation down, an International Monetary Fund official has said.

“A swift completion of final agreements with official creditors and reaching a resolution with external private creditors remain critical,” IMF Senior Mission Chief Peter Breuer said after a staff visit.

“Building on the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s success in taming inflation, future monetary policy decisions should remain prudent with a focus on keeping inflation expectations well anchored.”

The mission called for speeding up a “progressive property tax” saying swift progress towards the introduction of a progressive property tax is key to ensuring fair burden sharing while sustaining the revenue-based consolidation.