Sri Lankan President lauds Nirmala Sitharaman on Women's Day

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on International Women's Day lauded three women leaders including Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for helping the debt-ridden island nation. India provided Colombo with credit lines and loans in early 2022 to help recover from the crisis.

Addressing a state function, he said several people helped the country amid the ongoing economic crisis but three women topped the sector. "Between the women's day of last year and this year, this country underwent a big transformation. The first reason was the collapse of our economy. We have to look back at that period, we see three women who came to our assistance."

"I want to make a special mention of them. The foremost of them is Nirmala Sitharaman - the finance minister of India. It was she who discussed with the prime minister and the Cabinet and made the decision to lend 3 billion dollars to us in April. That was after we had declared our bankruptcy. It was a very brave decision to lend money to a bankrupt country. We have to thank her in the first place. I don't have to tell you how bad we would have been without that USD 3 billion," he added.

He also praised US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgiva. "Without those three women leaders, we would have been in serious trouble."

The IMF on Tuesday welcomed the island nation's progress in taking some decisive policy actions to address its economic woes and obtaining financing assurances from all its major creditors, including China, India, and the Paris Club. "Look forward to presenting Sri Lanka's IMF-supported program to our Executive Board on March 20."