Lankan minister slams WB, IMF as forex reserves tumble
AFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka is accusing international lenders and donor nations of dictating policy as the island's hard currency reserves drop sharply amid a slowdown of foreign aid. Finance Secretary P. B. Jayasundera criticised the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and bilateral aid donors for forcing policies unsuitable for the country. "We can talk to the fund and the bank about programs suitable for Sri Lanka, but here they have taken a dominant role," Jayasundera said. "Their consultants are dominant. Their policies are dominant." "We are somewhat subservient to the fund and the bank. We should not be," he added. He said the country's "external resources department," through which all foreign aid is channelled, should be able to negotiate what was actually needed for home-grown projects rather than accept what is imposed. Despite averaging 5.5 percent annual growth rates in the past 15 years, poverty remained a serious problem, he said.
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