COLOMBO – The Exim Bank of China, the top Chinese lender to Sri Lanka has reached a “preliminary” agreement with the island, a media report said, raising prospects of progress on restructuring the island’s defaulted debt.
The debt agreement was reached at the end of September, Bloomberg Newswires quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin as saying in Beijing on Tuesday (10).
Sri Lanka has to make progress acceptable to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to unlock a second US$ 330 million tranche and continue to be eligible for budget support loans from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.
China is also talking to Sri Lanka’s other creditors known as the Paris Club, the spokesman was quoted as saying.
It is not clear whether the “preliminary” agreement on restructuring is acceptable to the IMF as sufficient progress.
Sources familiar with the talks said there appeared to be a ‘softening’ of China’s stance of late.
US$ 3,992 million of the US$ 6,850 million owed to China, had been loaned by the Exim Bank.
China Development Bank had loaned another US$ 535.2 million classified as bilateral, and another US$ 2,185 million loan classified as a commercial credit.
“All creditors are engaging positively with us,” State Minister for Finance Shehan Semasinghe said last month.
“We expect decisions from all our creditors. For us earlier the better.”
Sri Lanka’s Western lenders, known as the Paris Club has a well-oiled mechanism to restructure debt, which is a ‘done deal’ according to those familiar with the workings of the organization.
Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to visit China shortly.
-economynext.com
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