Sri Lanka is unikely to get an International Monetary Fund deal in December as originally expected with delays in dealing with China and India which are out of the Paris Club as well as ‘bilateral issues’, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said. Sri Lanka has to get ‘creditor assurances’ on debt restructuring from bilateral lenders before the IMF’s executive board endorses a reform program formally.

Unlike other countries which got into default, two out of three main creditors of Sri Lanka were out of the Paris Club of creditors who had already had a well-oiled mechanism for dealing with debt re-structuring.

“I first went to the Paris Club where all the creditors were from the West and Japan,” President Wickremesinghe told a forum of tea factory owners in Colombo.

“However, we are in a unique position today where out of our three main creditors, only one belongs to the Paris Club. Japan. “The other two are not in the Paris Club. They are India and China.” He said China started debt restructuring with Zambia. There were also ‘bilateral issues’ to deal with, he said without elaborating.

“I think India has it for the first time with Sri Lanka,” President Wickremesinghe said. “I have already started discussions with Japan and now with India and China.

“We get down to a common platform of how we can resolve it while we also have discussions on bilateral issues that affect each other’s countries.”

China has just finished its party conference where senior officials had change.

“If we can move and come to an agreement by December, which means coming to an agreement by mid-November, and going up to the IMF Board in mid-December, we will gain a big advantage,” Wickremesinghe said. “However, I don’t know whether we can do it for the simple reason that in China, the focus has started now after the party conference. However, we must aim to have it by January.”

Sri Lanka however has made most of the corrections required to regain monetary stability.

Balance of payments troubles are problem associated with reserve collecting central bank which mis-target interest rates with printed money through a policy rate incompatible with domestic credit trends.

Active open market operations were begun by the Federal Reserve in the process of triggering the Great Depression in the 1920s. When a country with a central bank with a history of chronic mistargeting of rates – Sri Lanka had gone to the IMF 16 times before – gets market access its tends to default.

The key reason third world countries get into balance of payments trouble is money printed to keep policy rates too low by soft-pegged central bankers which fires unsustainable credit and balance of payments deficits.

Sri Lanka has also raised taxes to reduce central government credit and hike tariffs of public utilities to reduce or eliminate their borrowings.

The central bank has also lost the ability to intervene and sterilize interventions with new money after the intervention effectively losing its ability to generate BOP deficits from around August.

Individuals over the age of 40 who have not obtained their National Identity Cards (NIC) due to the lack of their birth certificates can still apply for their NICs, Commissioner General of the Department for Registration of Persons, Pradeep Saputantri said.

The Constitutional Council has rejected President Ranil Wickremesinghe's proposal to extend the term of office for Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam (PC) by another six months.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe officially inaugurated the long-awaited Clinical Training and Research Block at the Jaffna University Faculty of Medicine this morning.

Former Parliamentarian Sajin de Vass Gunawardena has been appointed as the Chief Organiser for the Ambalangoda Electorate and District Leader by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and Former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the US and to the UN Office in Geneva, Jayantha Dhanapala passed away at the age of 85, while receiving treatment at the Kandy National Hospital. The Director of the Kandy National Hospital confirmed that the former diplomat had passed away after suffering a heart attack

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Vadivel Suresh who is on a collision course with the party is to decide on his political fate tomorrow after meeting a representative of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and also Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa. Mr. Suresh told the Daily Mirror he will be attending two meetings tomorrow, one with a representative of the President and the other with Mr. Premadasa.

Marcia V. J. Kran, Canadian lawyer and expert member of the UN Human Rights Committee, pressed Sri Lanka delegate Major General Kulatunga about his role in overseeing the Joseph Camp in Vavuniya, plagued with allegations of torture, and the Army Court’s denial of war crimes. Kulatunga served as Commander of the notorious Wanni Security Force Headquarters in Vavuniya, commonly referred to as the Joseph Camp, from 2016-2017. The camp has been marked by repeated accounts of torture and sexual violence throughout the armed conflict, with more recent accounts of torture dated as late as 2017.

Chief Prelate of the Asgiri Chapter, Most Ven. Warakagoda Gnanarathana Mahanayake Thera said every time an election approaches, the Government brings up an unnecessary issue and this time around it was the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. This was at a time when the majority of citizens were going hungry. He said no politician in this country truly serves the country or the people.

The body of a female, suspected to be murdered was found at the Race Course Ground in Colombo 7 a short while ago. Police said the body was found near the scoreboard at the Ground. The cinnamon garden Police has commenced the investigation. Police said the victim was aged 23 years and was a resident of Homagama.

Sri Lanka President and the finance Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe said military personnel will be given the opportunity to retire early after completing 18 years of service.