\n
LONDON\/COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout plan could be a turning point in its worst economic crisis, but far-from-stable politics and a need to get debt relief from competing powers China, India and Japan means some of the hardest work is still to come.<\/p>\n
President Ranil Wickremesinghe knows a lot of circles will need to be squared for IMF’s US$2.9 billion lifeline to become a reality.<\/p>\n
Spending cuts, tax hikes and debt write-downs are a common formula for bankrupt countries, but crisis veterans say there are some uniquely difficult elements here.<\/p>\n
An impoverished population that forced former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee in July still needs to accept Wickremesinghe, seen by many as of the same political ilk and a man who faces a bristling opposition.<\/p>\n
The country’s borrowings are so complex that estimates of the total range anywhere from US$85 billion to well over US$100 billion. To get it to a sustainable level Beijing, New Delhi, Tokyo, multilaterals and global asset managers must all swallow losses.<\/p>\n
“This one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen,” said Renaissance Capital’s chief economist Charles Robertson who has watched emerging market crises unfold for decades.<\/p>\n
“The government destroyed its revenue base with unsustainable tax cuts, it tried to hold the currency when tourism revenues collapsed and now it has no reserves in the bank and a population facing widespread poverty.”<\/p>\n
Estimates from the United Nations say the crisis has left more than a quarter of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population struggling to secure adequate, nutritious food.<\/p>\n
The IMF’s 4-year rescues plan provisionally agreed last week demands serious fiscal repair work and more autonomy for the central bank, which was ordered to frantically print money under Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n
To hit the IMF’s target of lifting its primary budget surplus to 2.4 per cent by 2025, Sri Lanka would get its economy growing by around 6 per cent, something not achieved for about five years. This year it expected to contract at least 8 per cent.<\/p>\n
COURTING ASIA’S HEAVYWEIGHTS<\/h2>\n
Just as challenging, the IMF wants Colombo to secure “financing assurances” – Fund speak for debt relief and new loans – from regional heavyweights China, Japan and India who have long jostled for influence.<\/p>\n
The World Bank estimates Beijing’s lending, which has funded costly projects from ports to stadium, adds up to $7 billion, or 12 per cent of Sri Lanka’s $63 billion external debt. Japan has provided another US$3.5 billion while India has given around US$1 billion.<\/p>\n
Without the “assurances” from those countries, the Fund’s money cannot flow, IMF Mission Chief Peter Breuer stressed.<\/p>\n
“Finding creative ways to have a collaborative platform to advance these debt restructuring discussions is very useful,” Breuer told Reuters. “How debt relief is distributed amongst creditors … that is something we don’t insert ourselves into.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] LONDON\/COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout plan could be a turning point in its worst economic crisis, but far-from-stable politics and a need to get debt relief from competing powers China, India and Japan means some of the hardest work is still to come. President Ranil Wickremesinghe knows a lot of circles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,6],"tags":[41,307,53,122],"yoast_head":"\n
Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[ad_1] LONDON\/COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout plan could be a turning point in its worst economic crisis, but far-from-stable politics and a need to get debt relief from competing powers China, India and Japan means some of the hardest work is still to come. President Ranil Wickremesinghe knows a lot of circles […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alex John\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex John\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alex John\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/54b91a0926cd49743d0b29a2efa4a1d9\"},\"headline\":\"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\"},\"wordCount\":472,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"China\",\"International Monetary Fund\",\"Japan\",\"Sri Lanka\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Asia\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\",\"name\":\"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/\",\"name\":\"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cropped-cropped-A-2-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cropped-cropped-A-2-1.png\",\"width\":462,\"height\":129,\"caption\":\"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/54b91a0926cd49743d0b29a2efa4a1d9\",\"name\":\"Alex John\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8ce975f5741e29468ecdbee6c8b181a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8ce975f5741e29468ecdbee6c8b181a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alex John\"},\"description\":\"Hi, I am Alex John, A blogger and online marketer at AsiaPosts.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/author\/amit\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","og_description":"[ad_1] LONDON\/COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout plan could be a turning point in its worst economic crisis, but far-from-stable politics and a need to get debt relief from competing powers China, India and Japan means some of the hardest work is still to come. President Ranil Wickremesinghe knows a lot of circles […]","og_url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/","og_site_name":"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","article_published_time":"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00","author":"Alex John","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alex John","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/"},"author":{"name":"Alex John","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/54b91a0926cd49743d0b29a2efa4a1d9"},"headline":"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India","datePublished":"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/"},"wordCount":472,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["China","International Monetary Fund","Japan","Sri Lanka"],"articleSection":["Asia","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/","url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/","name":"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India - Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-06T09:07:36+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/sri-lanka-has-an-imf-deal-now-it-courts-china-and-india\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sri Lanka has an IMF deal, now it courts China and India"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/","name":"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#organization","name":"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World","url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cropped-cropped-A-2-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cropped-cropped-A-2-1.png","width":462,"height":129,"caption":"Asia Posts- Trending Post Of the World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/54b91a0926cd49743d0b29a2efa4a1d9","name":"Alex John","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8ce975f5741e29468ecdbee6c8b181a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8ce975f5741e29468ecdbee6c8b181a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alex John"},"description":"Hi, I am Alex John, A blogger and online marketer at AsiaPosts.com.","sameAs":["https:\/\/asiaposts.com"],"url":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/author\/amit\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiaposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}