Colombo seeks China ‘buffer’ funds
SRI LANKA is seeking $2.2 billion (£1.57bn) from Chinese banks, the government said last Thursday (25).
Money and capital markets minister Nivard Cabraal said the government hoped to finalise a $1.5 bn (£1bn) swap facility with China’s central bank. “Within the next two weeks we should be able to finalise it,” Cabraal said in Colombo. He added that the funds would be used as a “buffer” to meet the government’s foreign currency needs.
Official figures show Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves plummeted to $4.8 bn (£3.4bn) at the end of January, the lowest since September 2009 when they fell to $4.2 bn (£3bn). Officials said Sri Lanka was also in talks with China
Development Bank for a $700-million (£500m) loan that would include the equivalent of $200m (£1.43 m) being drawn in Chinese currency.
Under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa between 2005-15, Colombo borrowed billions from China, accumulating a mountain of debt for expensive infrastructure projects. This sparked Western and Indian concerns that the strategically located Indian
Ocean nation was falling victim to a Chinese debt trap.
Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to power as prime minister in 2019 after his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa as elected president.
Three top international rating agencies downgraded Sri Lanka’s creditworthiness late last year after raising doubts over Colombo’s ability to service its foreign debt.
The country’s economy is reeling from the twin impacts of the deadly 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 and devastated the tourism sector as well as the fallout from the Covid pandemic.
Cabraal insisted last Thursday that Sri Lanka would maintain its record of repaying debt on time.
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