A senior Sri Lankan economist has claimed that the government will soon face difficulties in borrowing from abroad, due to austerity measures in other countries affecting the global economy, coupled with the Sri Lankan Central Bank’s planned, “less accommodative”, monetary policy, reported the DailyMirror.
“This means the terms which we can borrow abroad will get tightened. So, the terms on which we borrowed over the last two, three years will not be available,” Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy told a recent forum.
Sri Lanka’s debt ratio is also higher than that of other comparable economies, said another panellist, the IMF’s Koshy Mathai.
“[T]here is no doubt that Sri Lanka’s debt is high. Compared to other emerging markets, we have a very high debt ratio. That’s indisputable,” said Mathai.