WB says no new plans for financing for Sri Lanka

The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka until an adequate macroeconomic policy framework is in place, it said in a statement on Thursday. The World Bank stressed that Sri Lanka needs to enact structural reforms that focus on economic stabilization and address the root structural causes that led to the crisis. The statement by the World Bank was released on Thursday, two days after the International Monetary Fund– another financial lending body under the United Nations — asked the cash-strapped Sri Lanka to begin debt restructuring talks with its creditors, including China, before it can hope of getting the bailout package. The island nation of 22 million is in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis that has led to severe shortages of fuel and other essentials.