The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, will consider Sri Lanka's bailout package for approval today. The bailout will be through a 2.9 billion dollar extended fund facility available through tranches over a 4 year period. The facility was discussed in the staff level agreement which Sri Lanka had finalised with IMF in September last year.<br />'' <br />''The Board's approval is also expected to unlock further funding through other multilateral institutions like World Bank.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">If approved, this would be Sri Lanka's 17th programme with the IMF, after which the focus will shift to debt talks which experts say could take some time. <br />''<br />''The island nation had last obtained a bailout from IMF in 2016. Sri Lanka is going through its worst ever economic crisis since its independence in 1948, with an acute shortage of foreign exchange reserves.</span>