Lankan President Rajapaksa appoints new financial team for debt sustainability

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a prestigious team in financial and economic expertise as members of the Presidential Advisory Team on multilateral affairs and debt sustainability, the president's media division said.

The members of the advisory group include Indrajit Coomaraswamy, former Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka and former Director of Economic Affairs Department, Shanta Devarajan, Professor of Development Scheme at Georgetown University and former Chief Economist of World Bank, and Sharmini Coorey, former Director of Corporate Capacity Development and former Deputy Director of African Department of International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The division said that the members of the advisory group have already held discussions with the President on maintaining regular communication with the IMF.

The advisory group is entrusted with holding discussions with Sri Lankan officials involved in negotiations with the IMF, and providing guidance on overcoming the current debt crisis, officials said.

Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries. (ANI)