Sri Lanka successfully completed the sixth review, enabling the next disbursement of supporting funds.

Sustaining policy discipline remains critical to strengthen resilience and support strong and inclusive growth.

Mobilizing revenue will be central to place public debt on a downward path while preserving space for social and investment spending.

On November 1, 2019, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the Sixth Review of Sri Lanka’s economic performance under the program supported by an extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The completion of the Sixth review, upon the granting of a waiver of non-observance for the end-June 2019 performance criterion on the primary balance, enables the disbursement of SDR 118.5 million (about US$164 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 952.23 million (about US$1.31 billion).

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100)  increased to 5.0 per cent in September 2019 from 3.4 per cent in August 2019. The monthly increases of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories contributed to this increase as reflected in year-on-year Food and Non-food inflation recording 4.9 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively in September 2019. In addition, the low base that prevailed in the corresponding month of the previous year also contributed for this increase.