Sri Lanka Settles Some Two Billion USD Worth Of Foreign Debts, Interest Payments

COLOMBO, Apr 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Sri Lankan government has settled more than 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in foreign debts and interest payments, between President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s assumption of office and Feb, this year, said Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, President’s Director General of Community Affairs.

In a statement issued yesterday, Tennakoon said that, in the same period, the government has disbursed more than 1.3 billion dollars in multilateral loans and interest, with no outstanding arrears in loan installments or interest payments.

According to the Department of External Resources, payments totalling 760.1 million dollars have been made to the Asian Development Bank, and seven million dollars to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, he said.

During this period, 571 million dollars worth of bilateral loans and interest have also been paid, Tennakoon said.

The Sri Lankan government is also actively engaged in restructuring business loans and interest, totalling more than 4.4 billion dollars, acquired at high-interest rates, Tennakoon said.

– NNN-XINHUA