Sri Lankan officials have completed a five-day training course on the IMF’s Sovereign Risk and Debt Sustainability Framework (SRDSF) in Colombo, EconomyNext reported.
The course was organised by the IMF’s South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) and held at the Taj Samudra from 7 to 11 September, as part of the Fund’s capacity development programme.
Participants included officials from the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, alongside international attendees.
What was taught
The training focused on strengthening participants’ technical skills to assess sovereign risks, evaluate debt sustainability and measure the impact of macroeconomic and financing shocks on public debt, while encouraging knowledge sharing and the exchange of international best practice, the Ministry of Finance said.
The SRDSF is the IMF’s methodology for assessing debt sustainability in countries with access to international capital markets — the category Sri Lanka is working to re-enter after its 2022 default and subsequent restructuring.
Why it matters for the PDMO
The Director General of the Public Debt Management Office highlighted the importance of robust analytical capability in guiding sound, evidence-based public debt decisions.
“The training offers a vital opportunity for local officials, particularly within the PDMO, to adopt international approaches to debt sustainability analysis and sovereign risk assessment,” the Director General said, in remarks EconomyNext did not attribute to a named official.
The expertise gained will strengthen Sri Lanka’s ability to identify and manage emerging sovereign risks within a sustainable financial framework, the ministry said.
The PDMO is a comparatively new institution, set up to consolidate debt management functions previously spread across the Treasury and the Central Bank, and its capacity has been raised as a concern in reporting on Sri Lanka’s post-restructuring debt architecture.
A separate exercise from the review mission
The course overlapped with the arrival of the IMF team led by Evan Papageorgiou, which is in Colombo from 10 to 23 September for the combined seventh EFF review and the 2026 Article IV Consultation.
The two are distinct. SARTTAC capacity development is technical assistance and training, not programme negotiation, and EconomyNext does not connect the course to the review.
Not reported
EconomyNext does not name the PDMO Director General, give the number of participants or the countries the international attendees came from, name the instructors, or say what the course cost or who paid for it. It does not say whether the training will be repeated, or whether Sri Lanka’s own debt sustainability analysis will be revised as a result. No other newsroom had filed on the course at the time of writing.
