Sri Lanka to raise USD5Bn from Sovereign and Development Bonds in 2018

Jan 04, 2018 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's cabinet of ministers have given approval to raise up to US 2 billion dollars through foreign commercial borrowings and a further US 3 billion dollars from Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDB) to raise the funds for loan repayment and financing of development projects. The proposal was put forward by Finance & Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera. According to the latest statement on approved cabinet decisions the maximum borrowing limit for 2018 is 1,893 billion rupees. From this 1,313 billion rupees will be obtained from local sources and 580 billion rupees will come from foreign sources. The bond issues will be done under the supervision of Central Bank of Sri Lanka for obtaining US 3,000 million dollars (Approximately 456 billion rupee) for the Year 2018. Under the Public Borrowing Program 2018 the issuing of international sovereign bonds was approved by the cabinet to obtain funds up to US 2,000 million dollars through issuing above bonds in year 2018. The total estimated foreign debt service payments will be around 445.82 billion rupees in 2018 and the foreign currency debt service payments will be around 842.96 billion rupees. There will also be USD 3.5 billion in maturity payments and USD 1.5 billion in coupon payments for ISBs due from 2019-2021. government_securities_trade_summary_02_01_2018