{"id":79875,"date":"2018-08-03T15:43:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T22:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=79875"},"modified":"2018-08-03T15:43:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T22:43:34","slug":"sri-lanka-secures-1-billion-chinese-loan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/08\/03\/sri-lanka-secures-1-billion-chinese-loan\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka secures $1 billion Chinese loan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0AFP\u00a0Courtesy Daily Mail<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
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The huge port under construction in Colombo straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route and also gives a strategic foothold to China in a region long dominated by India<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sri Lanka’s central bank on Friday announced it had secured a $1 billion Chinese loan as the island, a key link in Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative, develops closer relations with Asia’s largest economy.<\/p>\n

Central bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said that first half of the loan will be released later this month and the balance will be received in October.<\/p>\n

“During consultations (with the Chinese over the loan) it was clear that they see us as a key strategic partner as far as the (Belt and Road) initiative is concerned, given our location,” Coomaraswamy told reporters in Colombo.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The eight-year loan by China Development Bank carries a 5.25 percent interest rate with a three year grace period.<\/p>\n

Coomaraswamy said that the terms of Chinese loan were better than other international lenders and the country hopes to secure additional $200 to $250 million from China’s domestic financial market by issuing “Panda bonds”.<\/p>\n

Last month, China vowed to keep providing financial help, including loans, to Sri Lanka despite warnings about the island nation’s mounting debt.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka last year granted a 99-year lease on a strategic port to Beijing over its inability to repay Chinese loans for the $1.4 billion project.<\/p>\n

The port in Colombo straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route and also gives a strategic foothold to China in a region long dominated by India.<\/p>\n

China had said its loan portfolio in Sri Lanka was $5.5 billion as of last month, just over a tenth of Colombo’s total $51.82 billion external debt.<\/p>\n

“China will continue to provide selfless support, including much-needed funds for the development of Sri Lanka,” the Chinese embassy in Colombo said last month.<\/p>\n

China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project seeks to revive ancient trade routes through a massive rail and maritime network via $1 trillion in investments across Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka in June 2016 with a $1.5 billion staggered loan, has warned that Colombo over its heavy debt.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s economy has been on the mend since the IMF bailout, but growth in 2017 at 3.1 percent was the slowest in 16 years.<\/p>\n

The central bank had forecast 2018 growth at between 4.0 to 4.5 percent, but Coomaraswamy on Friday revised his estimate for the calendar year to below 4.0 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0AFP\u00a0Courtesy Daily Mail The huge port under construction in Colombo straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route and also gives a strategic foothold to China in a region long dominated by India Sri Lanka’s central bank on Friday announced it had secured a $1 billion Chinese loan as the island, a key link in Beijing’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79875","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=79875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}