A few decades ago many countries did not release IMF documents as governments were unwilling to defend policies in the documents.
IMF programs are drawn up by technical people in government, who understood the problems facing a country.
Many politicians, who propagate policies contrary to those found in stabilizing documents, find it difficult to defend them.
But the IMF became more transparent and with greater details being released, mysteries behind monetary and fiscal policies was bared to the ordinary public.
The Sri Lanka technical MOU had some market sensitive data deleted, in line with standard practice.
It is not known why the government did not release the technical MOU earlier.
An IMF program is also accompanied by a staff report, which discuss issues facing the country in greater details and provides valuable insights as to why corrective action is needed, debt dynamic forecasts, real effective exchange rates, trends in state enterprises, banks.
Central