{"id":146332,"date":"2024-12-05T18:02:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T01:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=146332"},"modified":"2024-12-05T18:02:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T01:02:39","slug":"sri-lanka-to-ink-debt-deals-by-years-end-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/12\/05\/sri-lanka-to-ink-debt-deals-by-years-end-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka to ink debt deals by year\u2019s end – Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka vowed Thursday to complete its long-delayed foreign debt restructure within the month before a 2025 budget adhering to strict revenue targets set by the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports such as food and fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its economy has recovered after getting an IMF rescue package and imposing austerity reforms aimed at repairing the government\u2019s ruined finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic development deputy minister Anil Jayantha Fernando said debt restructuring had been delayed by more than two years, costing the country an additional $1.7 billion in accumulated interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are hoping to complete the restructure of bilateral debt and international sovereign bonds by December 31,\u201d Fernando said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, voted into office in September, told parliament that his government would present its first revenue and expenditure proposals for next year in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissanayake last month announced it would honour a deal secured by his predecessor to restructure $12.55 billion in international sovereign bonds, a key condition to maintain the $2.9 billion four-year IMF bailout loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agreements have yet to be inked to complete the debt restructuring process and allow Sri Lanka to return to international financial markets to raise new loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A majority of private creditors to the South Asian nation agreed in September to a 27 percent haircut on their loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissanayake\u2019s National People\u2019s Power (NPP) coalition had previously criticised the restructure deal as unfair on the impoverished nation and vowed to renegotiate after coming to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since its win in snap parliamentary elections last month he has made a U-turn, saying the economic recovery was too fragile to jeopardise with any changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the deal agreed in September and ratified by the new administration, bondholders will also take an 11 percent haircut on overdue interest payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka secured its IMF bailout in 2023 after doubling taxes, withdrawing energy subsidies and raising prices of essentials to shore up state revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka vowed Thursday to complete its long-delayed foreign debt restructure within the month before a 2025 budget adhering to strict revenue targets set by the International Monetary Fund. The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imf-bailout-package"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146332","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=146332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}