The country of 22 million people is struggling with its worst financial crisis in seven decades, unable to import essentials including food, fuel and medicines

Colombo has called in financial advisers Lazard as it prepares to renegotiate its complex web of creditors, including bilateral loans from Japan, India and China

An IMF delegation will visit Sri Lanka on June 20 and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is hopeful a staff level agreement will be reached by the end of the month

The port has been criticised as an example of reckless spending by the government, which has seen the country plunge into economic chaos and left the government unable to repay loans

Sri Lanka is in talks with the IMF for a loan package to help navigate its worst economic crisis in seven decades

Sri Lanka is renegotiating terms of a yuan deal with China worth $1.5bn, as the country will need $5bn to fund essential imports over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, PM says

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office last month, has raised taxes to shore up government revenues and plans to cut expenditure

Ranil Wickremesinghe said a Chinese loan was being finalised even as his government negotiates a multi-billion-dollar International Monetary Fund bailout

The bank said inflation would remain elevated in the near-term due to supply-side pressures while economic growth will also record a setback

Hit hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts, Sri Lanka's dire economic situation has led to spiralling inflation and shortages of essential supplies

The IMF will meet with Sri Lankan officials in a virtual meeting beginning on Monday, a statement from Masahiro Nozaki, the fund's country mission chief said on Saturday

The announcement follows news that Sri Lanka has extended a credit line with India by $200 million in order to procure emergency fuel stocks