Sri Lanka was given a preliminary debt restructuring proposal by the official creditor committee, which brings the country closer to completing the first review of an International Monetary Fund program, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Sri Lanka owes 4.346 billion dollars to Paris Club creditors and 1.68 billion US dollars to India, which is also in the official creditor committee.
Any initial proposal has to be vetted by Sri Lanka’s financial advisors to check its comparability with other creditors, another source said.
Sri Lanka already has an agreement with China covering 4.2 billion US dollars of their loans classified as official.
“China Exim Bank was the first to provide Sri Lanka with the agreement in principle,” President Wickremesinghe told the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2023 organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce late Tuesday.
“We expect the official creditors committee to provide a similar agreement in principle very shortly.”
“Contrary to many expectations Sri Lanka has been able to successfully navigate this process.
“With this we expect the IMF board to be in a position to conclude the first review of Sri Lanka’s EFF program within the month of December.
Sri Lanka is also negotiating with private creditors, President Wickremesinghe.
Sri Lanka rejected an initial proposal from private creditors involving GDP linked bonds.
Source : Economynext
