By Rathindra Kuruwita
Sri Lanka had to pay over USD 2.6 billion to foreign creditors, in 2023 as loan repayments and interest, Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told the media on Tuesday.
Addressing the post-Cabinet Press conference, Gunawardena said that around USD 2.1 billion dollars would be spent on debt repayment and USD 504 million on interest.
The Minister said that Sri Lanka had suspended paying bilateral foreign debt in April 2022.
However, the country continued to repay loans obtained from several multilateral organisations, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Gunawardena said, adding that the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance had informed the Cabinet on Monday that the projected government revenue for March is Rs 173 billion rupees (467.5 million dollars), but the recurrent expenditure amounted to Rs 196 billion (529.7 million dollars.)
Sri Lanka needed another Rs. 505 billion (1.36 billion dollars) to repay foreign loans by March, he said,
The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance had also informed the Cabinet that negotiations with the IMF had reached the last stages, but the bailout had not been finalised. Therefore, the government should be very careful in managing its resources, Gunawardena said.