Sri Lanka government foreign borrowings at Rs137bn; Rs316bn to borrow

July 06, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government has already borrowed 137 billion rupees and plans to borrow another 316 billion rupees before the end of this year, Dr. Harsha de Silva said.

As per the revised budget approved by the Parliament this year, 258 billion rupees is to be raised through foreign borrowings and another 195 billion rupees is to be raised through foreign commercial to finance the budget deficit.

Former Minister of policy planning Dr. Harsha de Silva told reporters recently that the government has already raised 52 billion rupees for various projects through foreign borrowings.

Another 85 billion rupees has been borrowed through the Central Bank as foreign commercial, Silva said.

“So that is the statutory limit and this applies to the whole year,”

“So we are borrowing the balance amount in the coming months and we indeed have the approval of the Parliament to borrow.” Silva stressed.

Silva further said that not only the Central Bank but also the external resources department function under the Ministry of Policy Planning and Economic Development has powers for foreign borrowings.

A total of 499 billion rupees was required to finance the budget deficit this year.