Sri Lanka’s government wants to finalise plans to resolve its debt crisis by the end of the year, the country’s president has said, urging creditors to quickly reach a compromise or risk creating more economic peril.

In his first interview since the IMF approved a $3bn, four-year lending programme on Monday, Ranil Wickremesinghe said the deal and his long-term reform plans were the country’s “l(fā)ast chance” to open up an economy beset by shortages of food, fuel, medicine and foreign currency during 2022.

“I would like to see the agreements by the end of the year,” Sri Lanka’s president said, referring to deals with its bilateral and commercial creditors that the country now needs to negotiate. “But what I like, and what can happen, are two different timelines.”