{"id":136394,"date":"2023-08-17T15:48:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T22:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=136394"},"modified":"2023-08-17T15:48:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T22:48:33","slug":"cash-strapped-sri-lanka-to-receive-help-from-china-ahead-of-imf-bailout-plan-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/08\/17\/cash-strapped-sri-lanka-to-receive-help-from-china-ahead-of-imf-bailout-plan-in-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash-strapped Sri Lanka to receive help from China ahead of IMF bailout plan in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/authors\/livemint\">Livemint<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">China assures Sri Lanka of help with debt challenges ahead of IMF bailout plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/lm-img\/img\/2023\/08\/17\/600x338\/sri_lanka_1692254735477_1692254735804.jpg\" alt=\"Sri Lanka was hit by the most severe economic crisis in its history in 2022 when the country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt after running out of foreign exchange (AFP)\" title=\"Sri Lanka was hit by the most severe economic crisis in its history in 2022 when the country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt after running out of foreign exchange (AFP)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is likely to get help from its largest bilateral creditor China ahead of IMF&#8217;s bailout plan. According to the PTI agency report, China has assured the island nation it will address the debt challenges before it finalises the external and domestic debt restructuring of $41 billion by September before the International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IMF is set to conduct its first review of the $2.9 billion bailout granted to Sri Lanka in March this year from 11-19 September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;China is always Sri Lanka&#8217;s reliable strategic partner and appreciates that Sri Lanka has always been friendly to China and has stood by China on issues related to its core interests,&#8221; China&#8217;s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crisis-ridden Sri Lanka is negotiating with its external creditors in order to meet the IMF\u2019s condition for its first review. The Washington-based lender approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for crisis-hit Sri Lanka in March this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The island county should agree with all its external creditors by next month on the programme to restructure the debt of $41 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first review will consider the programme&#8217;s performance until end-June, and if approved by both the staff and the executive board, would allow a disbursement of around $338 million to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, Sri Lanka was hit by the most severe economic crisis in its history when the country defaulted on its $46 billion external debt after running out of foreign exchange to finance essential food, fuel and medicines. As a result the public came out on the streets to protest the fuel, fertilisers, and essential commodities shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India too helped Sri Lanka in line with its &#8216;Neighbourhood First&#8217; Policy. India extended multi-pronged assistance of about $4 billion to it last year through multiple credit lines and currency support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Livemint China assures Sri Lanka of help with debt challenges ahead of IMF bailout plan Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is likely to get help from its largest bilateral creditor China ahead of IMF&#8217;s bailout plan. According to the PTI agency report, China has assured the island nation it will address the debt challenges before it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}