Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda met the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das at the bank’s headquarters in Mumbai earlier this week. “High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Governor Das for the support that India has been extending to Sri Lanka in the context of economic stabilization, particularly the currency swap arrangements and deferment of payments that materialized with the direct involvement of the Reserve Bank of India. He also thanked India for the leadership it took towards the realization of the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Sri Lanka,” the Sri Lankan mission said. The meeting comes amidst reports in the Sri Lankan media that Colombo was negotiating a fresh temporary US $1 billion loan from India for “purchase of essential foodstuff, medicines and other goods”. The RBI Governor and the High Commissioner discussed ways and means to enhance bilateral trade, particularly through Indian Rupee trade expansion, and how India could play a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s economic recovery through greater integration in areas such as power, energy, ports, infrastructure, tourism and IT services. Sri Lanka, which received US $333 million as the first tranche of the US $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme last week, used $121 million from that to settle a loan instalment from previous facilities extended by India.
