Sri Lanka opposition party says the IMF rejected the loan request

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has refused to grant a fund facility requested by the government.
UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said that the Central Bank has tried to mislead the people by saying it did not want any IMF funds since the country had sufficient reserves. "In reality, it is the IMF that has rejected the government's request," he observed. He explained that the country was in a debt trap since the government had taken loans from the IMF, China and other private banks. "The government is now trying to spin a tale to cover the fact that the IMF had rejected the government's request due to the current state of the economy," Attanayake said. During a meeting with an IMF delegation to the country recently, opposition parliamentarians Ravi Karunanayaka, Kabir Hashim and Dr. Harsha de Silva had expressed concerns over the government's economic policies to the visiting delegation. The opposition MPs had explained that in the event the IMF agrees to grant the US$ 1.5 billion budgetary support facility requested by the government, the Fund would be accused of aiding and abetting the government's mismanagement of finances. div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> -->