Thinking Cap

KANDY -- The International Monetary Fund may consider reviving a loan to Sri Lanka if the government provides it with clear plans to reduce poverty and develop the rural economy, an IMF official said.









KANDY -- The International Monetary Fund may consider reviving a loan to Sri Lanka if the government provides it with clear plans to reduce poverty and develop the rural economy, an IMF official said. The IMF will take a fresh look at its stalled 7 million loan called Poverty Reduction Growth Facility by September, Luis Valdivieso, the resident representative of the IMF in Sri Lanka told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a donor conference in the island's central town of Kandy.

"The key aspects (of the economic policies) have been developed but they have to be developed further and implemented. We have to come back later in the year to discuss it," Valdivieso said.

Sri Lanka's government wants to promote agriculture and small and medium industries to boost the rural economy, which the IMF is willing to support, provided it is presented with a clear program for meeting those goals.

The loan has been on hold since November 2003 due to political turmoil which led to a cha