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Agence France-Presse

Sri Lanka has finalised long-delayed debt deals with its bilateral lenders including China to meet a key condition of an IMF bailout, the government said on Tuesday.
A treasury delegation is on its way to France to sign agreements with creditors on Wednesday, government spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said.
Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange, and the unprecedented economic crisis forced the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down.
The government had expected a debt deal with all its creditors before the end of 2022, but negotiations dragged.
Bilateral creditors account for 28.5 per cent of Sri Lanka’s current outstanding foreign debt of US$37 billion, according to treasury data at the end of March.
China is the largest single bilateral lender, accounting for US$4.66 billion out of a total of US$10.58 billion borrowed from other countries.
Japan is second, with US$2.35 billion, and India is third with US$1.36 billion.
Sri Lanka’s commercial borrowings include US$12.55 billion raised through International Sovereign Bonds (ISB), and another US$2.18 billion from the China Development Bank.
“Talks with ISB holders are still ongoing,” Gunawardana said, adding that the debt deal with bilateral creditors was an important achievement for the island.
He said President Ranil Wickremesinghe will disclose details of the deal with official creditors in a speech to the nation on Wednesday evening.

While the cabinet of ministers has approved the terms of the agreements with creditors, Gunawardana declined to provide detail, saying that would be announced by the president on Wednesday.
The International Monetary Fund gave Sri Lanka this month the latest tranche of US$336 million out of a US$2.9 billion rescue package designed to help repair the island nation’s ruined finances over four years.
Sri Lanka is due to hold a presidential election this year, and opposition parties have vowed to renegotiate the terms of the IMF bailout.
IMF’s Sri Lanka mission chief Peter Breuer said they were willing to listen to alternative proposals from rival political parties, but said it was necessary to stick with the benchmarks set in the bailout.
Sri Lanka had made good progress, but the country was not out of the woods yet, he said.


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Sri Lanka

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka to sign debt deals with China, other lenders to meet IMF bailout

A vendor holds Sri Lankan banknotes at a market in Colombo. Photo: AFP

Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe is set to announce details of debt deals with lenders, including China to meet an IMF bailout deal. Photo: AFP

As cash-strapped Pakistan seeks to ease its China reliance, Saudi, UAE pledge billions

A family in Lahore rides past a mural showing the national flags of China and Pakistan. Analysts say it’s in “Pakistan’s utmost interests” to expand its investor base and financial cushions “beyond China and the IMF”. Photo: AFP

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (left) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh last month. Photo: SPA/dpa

Pakistani rupee banknotes. Pakistan needs foreign currency inflows totalling US$24 billion between July this year and June 2025 to service its external debts. Photo: Bloomberg

‘We want our children back’: the Sri Lankan families still demanding justice for their missing loved ones

 A Tamil mother mourning at the commemoration held to remember the fallen Tamils at the Northern village of Mullivaikkal, on May 18, where, 15 years ago, the last battle of Sri Lanka’s civil war was fought. Photo: Dimuthu Attanayake

A Sri Lankan Tamil war survivor is consoled by another as she cries for her deceased family members during a remembrance ceremony on a small strip of land where thousands of civilians were trapped during the last stages of the country’s civil war in Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka, on May 17. Photo: AP

An ethnic Tamil war survivor is consoled by others as she cries for her deceased family members during a remembrance ceremony in Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka, on May 17. Photo: AP

Muttan Devindran shows a picture of his youngest son who went missing during the last stages of the civil war, at the commemoration of the fallen Tamils, in the Northern village of Mullivaikkal on May 18. Photo: Dimuthu Attanayake

India sees a chance to make Sri Lanka ‘a virtual province’ amid its rivalry with China

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (left) with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last year. India provided Sri Lanka with US$4 billion in emergency financing after the island nation went bankrupt. Photo: AFP

The Colombo West International Terminal project in Colombo is being developed by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s multinational conglomerate. Photo: Bloomberg

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Sri Lanka was once dubbed “the world’s emptiest”. Photo: Handout

An aerial view of the Chinese-built Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, which was leased to a Chinese government-linked company for 99 years in 2017. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese debt trap? Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port set to debunk narrative with its success

A Cosco Shipping vessel at Hambantota port, Sri Lanka. Photo: Kalinga Seneviratne

The harbour at Hambantota port, Sri Lanka. Photo: Hambantota International Port Group

The office building of Hambantota International Port Group. Photo: Kalinga Seneviratne

An LNG carrier at Sinopec Tianjin LNG receiving station. The Chinese oil giant’s entry into the refining and bunkering business in Sri Lanka is set to be a game changer. Photo: Xinhua

Iran’s Raisi inaugurates Sri Lanka hydropower project, says West doesn’t have monopoly over technology, knowledge

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi (right) and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (left) inaugurating the Uma Oya irrigation and hydro-electricity project in Badulla district of Sri Lanka earlier this month. Photo: Sri Lanka President’s Office / AFP

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (centre right) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (centre left) inspecting the guards of honour at the presidential secretariat in Colombo on April 24. Photo: EPA-EFE/Sri Lankan President’s Media Division

Wickremesinghe (near right) welcoming Raisi (near left) for the inauguration of the Uma Oya irrigation and hydropower project near Badulla, Sri Lanka, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE/Sri Lankan President’s Media Division

News

Asia

South Asia

China is the largest single bilateral lender to Sri Lanka, accounting for US$4.66 billion of US$10.58 billion borrowed from other countries


China is the largest single bilateral lender to Sri Lanka, accounting for US$4.66 billion of US$10.58 billion borrowed from other countries.


International Monetary Fund (IMF)

China-Sri Lanka relations