Sri Lanka receives $160m grant from World Bank – PM

Sri Lanka received 160 million U.S. dollars grant from the World Bank on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament on Wednesday.

The prime minister also said that the country would receive another grant from the Asian Development Bank shortly as well.

“The World Bank funds can’t be used to purchase fuel. However, we are to make a request to the bank whether some of the money could be used to solve the immediate fuel crisis,” Wickremesinghe said.

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told parliament same day that there would be no petrol available in the country for the next two days as there were no available stocks,

He assured the parliamentarians that the matter would be resolved by the weekend.

Sri Lanka has been facing a severe economic crisis since the country defaulted on its external debt servicing on April 12, 2022.

The prime minister said that all the parliament members must work together to solve the crisis faced by Sri Lanka.

He said that by next week he would present to parliament a comprehensive report on the country’s financial status.

Wickremesinghe was appointed the prime minister on May 12 following the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa.