Sri Lanka, March 22 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sri Lanka and yesterday announced that they have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the second review of the four-year bailout programme, the global lender said on Thursday.

Under this review, which is to be ratified by the IMF's board, will release an additional USD 337 million in funding for Sri Lanka.

"This will bring the total IMF financial support disbursed under the arrangement to SDR 762 million (about US$1 billion)," IMF Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said in Colombo yesterday.

"Macroeconomic policy reforms are starting to bear fruit. Sustaining the reform momentum and addressing governance weaknesses and corruption vulne...