SL not in Chinese debt trap: PM
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday denied that Sri Lanka was in danger of spiralling into a debt trap from excessive Chinese borrowing, and insisted the country was not “under threat” from trade tensions between US and China.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Vietnam, Wickremesinghe noted Sri Lanka had not given control of the Hambantota port to China, and strove to provide a balanced view of Sri Lanka’s debt situation.
“There is a fair amount of Chinese investment, there are China loans, but I can’t see it as a threat and the amount is not big. Our largest loans are still dollar-denominated. As far as the loan-debt portfolio is concerned, our biggest chunk today would be the international sovereign bonds. With China, we did have short term issues regarding the Hamba...