Sri Lanka may borrow from international market says finance minister

Sri Lanka is considering borrowing from the international market as the new government has enough room to raise capital through loans, said Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

“Our borrowing limit is at 850 billion rupees and we still have room to raise another 35 billion rupees to 50 billion rupees though treasury bills,” said Mr Karunayake.

“You will see things happening in the next week,” he added. “Absolutely no problem at all”.

His comments to reporters in Colombo come after the International Monetary Fund rejected a US$4 billion for Sri Lanka last month and instead urged the country to restrict its intervention in foreign exchange markets.

“There is no necessity for us to get the approval to live for the day,” continued Mr Karunayake, adding that “taking some money would have been advantageous to the Government”.

See more from Lanka Business Online here and here.

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