President Gotabaya Rajapaksa acting as Finance Minister
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be the acting Finance Minister until a new person is appointed, cabinet spokesperson Kanchana Wijesekera said.
Despite the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a fresh cabinet being appointed on Monday (23) for the third time this year, the country is yet to appoint a finance minister.
The former Justice and Finance Minister Ali Sabry has been carrying on the IMF discussions in place of a finance minister.
Reuters on Monday (23), quoting a trio of sources said Sri Lanka has hired heavyweight financial and legal advisers Lazard and Clifford Chance for the difficult task of renegotiating its debts.
The move is the latest development in Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 and comes after the country was officially declared in default for the first time ever last week after it halted debt payments.
Experts and economists have been waiting for the appointment as the country looks to restructure over $12 billion of overseas debt that had been building up for years but become unsustainable when COVID-19 hammered the economy.
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