Washington-based World Bank said has announced that it had released a 250 million US dollar budget support loan to Sri Lanka out of 500 million which was originally approved in June.

The second tranche is released after assessing that “satisfactory progress is being made on reforms, the macroeconomic policy framework remains adequate, and the Banking (Special Provisions) Act has been enacted, the statement said.

“Continued momentum on economic and structural reforms is critical not only to stabilize the economy, but also to unleash its potential for private sector-led growth and transformation,” Faris H. Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka said in the statement.

The reform-based lending is co-ordinated with the IMF, ADB and other agencies, the World Bank said.

Sri Lanka is getting a series of budget support loans from lending agencies linked to completed structural benchmarks in the IMF program.