WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund on Friday agreed to release around 213 million dollars to Sri Lanka designed to top up the islands dwindling foreign reserves. The IMF moves to repair battered finances had been satisfactory as it dished out the fifth installment of a loan that now totals just under 1.3 billion dollars. Sri Lankas performance under the program has been satisfactory, the Washington-based fund said in a statement. Overall economic conditions are improving, and the economy is likely to show strong growth this year on the back of improved fundamentals and political stability. In 2009 Sri Lanka sought an IMF bailout worth 2.6 billion dollars to avert its first balance of payments crisis after the islands foreign reserves slipped to under a billion dollars last year. The loan was approved two months after the military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels and ended a 37-year conflict that claimed up to 100,000 lives according to UN figures. Sri Lankas economic growth is expected to double this year with the country firmly on the road to recovery after decades of ethnic war. The islands economy is expected to grow by seven percent this year, twice the rate of 2009, thanks to better farm output in the previously embattled north and east, according to previous IMF forecasts.