INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Sri Lanka is urging China to dramatically change its stance on debt relief, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Nikkei Asia in an exclusive
economy starved of foreign reserves and mired in misery
The effort is likely to feature prominently in a fresh round of discussions between Colombo and International Monetary Fund representatives
deferring the repayment dates for countries in debt to Chinese banks -- rather than restructuring the loans and settling for a loss-making
Seasoned observers see it pushing the Wickremesinghe administration to persuade the Chinese ahead of any staff-level agreement with the
Securities, a financial consultancy in Colombo
bondholders, who together account for the largest $14 billion slice of debt, to bilateral players such as China, Japan and India
$9.95 billion.Sri Lanka had a foreign debt bill of $6.9 billion that it had to service in 2022 but defaulted in April after it ran out of
reserves, not enough to ensure a steady flow of food, fuel and pharmaceutical imports
The latest figures from the Department of Census and Statistics show that food inflation in July soared to 82.5% on the year.The crisis has
swept away previously comfortable lives for tens of thousands and, in April, sparked months of anti-government protests that forced out
a drop in their purchasing power
The previous administration, once viewed as pro-China, strained diplomatic ties with Beijing over multiple spats
to India after being initially offered to China
The islands are close to India, which is locked in a geopolitical tussle with China for influence in the Indian Ocean.Pleasing China will
test Wickremesinghe, a foreign affairs veteran, as he courts Beijing over the debt
This was all too apparent earlier this month when Sri Lanka asked China to defer a port call by a military survey vessel due to protests by
The move prompted a furious response from Beijing and raised concerns that it could affect the debt restructuring talks.In the end, Sri
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://adaderana.lk
