Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday presented an interim budget aimed at stemming the country's worst financial crisis in decades.

Here are the highlights from the budget speech of Wickremesinghe, who also serves as the country's finance minister.

 

IMF

* Wickremesinghe says talks with IMF "have reached a successful level"

* Says hope to start talks with creditors

* After IMF programme concludes, decisions will be presented to parliament

TARGETS

* Targeting inflation in mid single digits

* Target medium term economic growth at 5%

* Target to increase public revenue to 15% of GDP by 2025 from 8.2%

 

REFORMS

* Will encourage FDI and joint ventures to develop Sri Lanka's natural resources

* Loss making state enterprises to be restructured under a special unit

* New legislation to be introduced to strengthen fiscal management

National debt management agency to be established under finance ministry

 

BANKING/TAXATION

* New central bank act to be introduced

* Central bank act to reduce politicisation and money printing of monetary authority

* Plan to increase reserves and reduce impact on exchange rate

* Fresh taxes to be introduced in 2023 budget

 

WELFARE

* New system to be established to better target welfare, fund sent directly to bank accounts

* Additional 4.6 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($12.85 million) for welfare support in next four months ($1 = 358.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Compiled by Alasdair Pal)