Sri Lanka has received the first disbursement of USD 250 million from the World Bank’s budgetary support of USD 500 million, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said on Tuesday.On June 28, the global financial institution approved USD 700 million in financing as budgetary and welfare support for Sri Lanka.

This is the biggest funding trance for the island nation since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package in March.Through this funding, the World Bank said it aims to help Sri Lanka implement foundational reforms that restore macroeconomic stability and sustainability, mitigate the impact of current and future shocks on the poor and vulnerable, and support an inclusive and private sector-led recovery and growth path.Thereby, USD 500 million of the funds is allocated for the ‘Sri Lanka Resilience, Stability - Economic Turnaround (RESET) Development Policy Operation’ which will support reforms that improve economic governance, enhance growth and competitiveness, and protect the poor and vulnerable.This operation will provide budgetary support in two equal tranches against agreed prior actions.Meanwhile, welfare support of USD 200 million is earmarked for the ‘Social Protection Project’ which seeks to support Sri Lanka in providing better-targeted income and livelihood opportunities to the poor and vulnerable and improving the responsiveness of the social protection program.The funding was green-lighted when the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors met for a discussion on the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Sri Lanka on June 28.