Sri Lanka’s Mahendran Seeks Overseas Loans to Reduce Debt Costs
BySri Lankan central bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran is seeking concessional overseas loans to refinance costlier debt and reduce reliance on global bond markets.
“We are looking at tens of billions of dollars” from lenders including the U.S., Japan and the European Union, Mahendran said in a telephone interview from Colombo. Concessional credit will “eventually refinance most of the commercial lending the country has contracted in the last five to seven years.”
Under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sri Lanka raised $5.5 billion from sovereign bonds with coupons averaging 6.5 percent as it built roads, ports and power plants following the end of a civil war in 2009. Maithripala Sirisena ousted Rajapaksa in January’s presidential polls by pledging a more balanced foreign policy, and is tapping countries including India to reduce reliance on China to fund development…
Sri Lanka’s Mahendran Seeks Overseas Loans to Reduce Debt Costs
