The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that it has completed its fourth review of Sri Lanka's economic performance as part of a three-year extended fund facility arrangement, approving the disbursement of another USD252 million loan tranche to the country.
In a press release issued earlier this month, the IMF's deputy managing director Mitsuhiro Furusawa lauded the country's progress saying that "Sri Lanka has made important progress under its Fund-supported program. The authorities’ efforts to improve the policy mix through fiscal consolidation, prudent monetary policy, and landmark structural reforms are supporting the economic recovery, despite recent shocks. Sustaining the reform momentum is critical to strengthen the country’s resilience to shocks, given the still sizable public debt and low external buffers, and to set the foundation for strong and inclusive growth."
From an aviation perspective, Furusawa said it was essential for the Sri Lankan government to implement a restructuring plan for the ailing state-owned SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International) which has been loss-making for many years. A negative 10.56% net margin in 2015 was its best result in the last five years, according to the carrier's annual reports summarized in the ch-aviation airlines module.
In April, SriLankan announced a record un-audited annual passenger revenue of LKR126.9 billion rupees (USD830.7 million) for its 2017/2018 financial year ending on March 31, up approximately 20.8% from the previous 2016/2017 period, but it does not expect its full audited financial reports to be finalised and published before September.
Having secured a USD200 million loan facility from Credit Suisse by the end of 2017, the government has held talks with Qatar earlier this year about a potential strategic partnership between Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) and SriLankan. After previous attempts to find a buyer for the carrier failed last year, Sri Lankan Minister of Public Enterprises Development Kabir Hashim was quoted as saying by the Daily News in January that the government currently has no immediate plans to divest from the carrier.
