Sri Lanka held the third meeting with its bilateral creditors on debt restructuring, State Finance Minister said, as the island nation’s $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan has been delayed amid agreement among its creditors are yet to be seen.
Sri Lanka could not hold the third meeting with bilateral lenders scheduled for November 17 citing the creditors need some clarification before the next meeting.
The creditors include geopolitical rivals China and India. No country has so far fully agreed with any of the debt restructuring system, government sources have said.
“We are thankful to all our bilateral creditors who participated at the 3rd meeting of officials on Sri Lanka’s debt treatment process which was held today,” State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe said in a twitter message.
“We appreciate the progressive and constructive engagements. Further wish to reiterate that we will maintain an equal, comparable and transparent debt treatment policy.”
Government sources have said Sri Lanka is now eyeing January deadline for the IMF board approval to secure $2.9 billion loan.
They say lack of consensus among Sri Lanka’s creditors over debt restructuring and some pending reforms in loss-making state owned enterprises (SOEs) have resulted in the delay.
Sri Lanka held its first meeting with bilateral creditors on October 14 and the second on November 03, though no consensus has been reached. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s administration has said that it has been negotiating India and China for debt restructuring separately.