Sri Lanka's economic growth rate is expected to double this year, with the country firmly on the road to recovery after decades of ethnic war, a top International Monetary Fund official said Monday. The island's economy will grow by seven percent this year, up from 3.5 percent in 2009, thanks to improved farm output in the previously embattled north and east, forecast Brian Aitken, head of the IMF mission to Colombo.
The strong economic performance meant there would be no difficulty for the IMF in releasing the fourth tranche of a 2.6-billion-dollar bailout approved in July 2009, Aitken said. "We feel things are quite good," Aitken told reporters following a 10-day visit to the island. "We are in a position to recommend to the IMF board approval of the next (loan) instalment worth over 200 million dollars," he said. With that payout, the IMF will have released 1.2 billion dollars of the loan.
Sri Lanka sought an IMF bailout to avert its first balance of payment crisis after the island's foreign reserves slipped to under a billion dollars last year. The loan was approved in July, two months after the military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels and ended a 37-year conflict that claimed up to 100,000 lives, according to UN figures.