ECONOMYNEXT — Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt is 37 billion US dollars and it did not increase from 71 billion to 100 billion over his incumbency as claimed by affiliates of opposition MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said.
Addressing parliament on Tuesday July 02, Wickremesinghe refuted a social media post attributed to an affiliate of Dissanayake, the leader of the leftist National People’s Power (NPP).
“Some political groups are spreading false information about our foreign debt on social media.
“We have debated with Dissanayake and confronted each other. But he had never hurled such low-bro insults at me. But some of your followers are working to even destroy you,” said Wickremesinghe addressing the opposition MP.
“Our total foreign debt is 37 billion dollars. But this person has claimed falsely that it’s 71 billion. The post then says that we took loans up to 100 billion over the last two years. But everyone knows that no country gave us loans after declaring the default. No country has a legal right to give us a loan. So what is being sought by propagating such lies?
“If no country is lending to us, how are we getting loans? Am I to break the Bank of England? I don’t know that, but the person who posted this is more experienced in breaking banks,” joked the president, inviting laughter from both sides of the aisle.
Wickremesinghe’s Yahapalana government, of which he was prime minister from 2015 to 2019, was plagued by a scandal that saw accusations from then opposition lawmakers of a Central Bank ‘bond scam’, which in popular parlance is referred to as ‘maha bankuwa kaduwa’ (broke, or robbed, the central bank).
Wickremesinghe said that out of the 37 billion US dollars Sri Lanka owes to the world, 10 billion falls under bilateral debt while 11.7 billion makeup multilateral debt. Commercial debt makes up 14 billion, of which 12.5 billion are international sovereign bonds (ISBs). (Colombo/Jul02/2024)