Sri Lanka sovereign rating at SD but ISBs downgraded to ‘D’ by S&P
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating remains at Selective Default (SD), but the country’s sovereign bonds were downgraded to ‘D’ after missed interest payments, Standard and Poor’s, a rating agency said.
“The Sri Lanka government remains in default on some foreign currency obligations, including international sovereign bonds (ISBs),” the S&P said.
“We do not expect the government to make the payments within 30 calendar days after their due dates.
“We lowered the ratings on the affected bonds to ‘D’, following missed interest payments due on June 3, June 28, and July 18, and a missed principal payment due July 25.”
Sri Lanka is still paying senior creditors with money coming from deferred payments from the Asian Clearing Union.
Sri Lanka started to borrow heavily in foreign bond markets from 2015 after battering its currency peg with extraordinary liquidity injections under ‘flexible inflation targeting and the country lost the ability to roll-over maturing rupee bonds at gross financing level.
From 2015 to 2019, the country had monetary stability only in 2017 and 2019 as the pegged exchange rate regime was shattered with liquidity injections to target an ‘output gap’.
However the targeting the output gap led to currency crises (balance of payment deficit) and growth fell as stabilization measures were slammed.
From 2020 to 2022 even more aggressive liquidity injections were made and taxes were also cut saying there was a ‘persistent output gap’ until all foreign reserves including borrowed reserves were lost and the the country defaulted in peacetime.
The International Monetary Fund gave technical assistance to Sri Lanka to calculate the output gap and also endorsed ‘flexible inflation targeting’, with overnight repo injections, term repo injections, outright purchase of bond, despite having a reserve collecting peg.
On April 12, 2022 Sri Lanka defaulted despite being at peace.
The full statement is reproduced below:
Sri Lanka Bonds Downgraded To ‘D’ After Missed Payments; Sovereign Ratings Affirmed
Overview
The Sri Lanka government remains in default on some foreign currency obligations, including international sovereign bonds (ISBs).
We do not expect the government to make the payments within 30 calendar days after their due dates.
We lowered the ratings on the affected bonds to ‘D’, following missed interest payments due on June 3, June 28, and July 18, and a missed principal payment due July 25.
We affirmed our ‘SD/SD’ foreign currency and ‘CCC-/C’ local currency ratings on Sri Lanka. The outlook on the long-term local currency rating is negative.
Rating Action
On Aug. 15, 2022, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its ‘SD’ long-term and ‘SD’ short-term foreign currency sovereign ratings on Sri Lanka. At the same time, we affirmed our ‘CCC-‘ long-term and ‘C’ short-term local currency sovereign ratings. The outlook on the long-term local currency rating remains negative.
In addition, we lowered to ‘D’ from ‘CC’ the issue ratings on the following bonds with missed coupon or principal payments:
US$650 million, 6.125% bonds due June 3, 2025.
US$1.0 billion, 6.825% bonds due July 18, 2026.
US$1.0 billion, 5.875% bonds due July 25, 2022.
US$500 million, 6.35% bonds due June 28, 2024.
Our transfer and convertibility assessment at ‘CC’ is unchanged.
Outlook
Our foreign currency rating on Sri Lanka is ‘SD’ (selective default). We do not assign outlooks to ‘SD’ ratings because they express a condition and not a forward-looking opinion of default probability.
The negative outlook on the local currency rating reflects the high risk to commercial debt repayments over the next 12 months in the context of Sri Lanka’s economic, external, and fiscal pressures.
Downside scenario
We could lower the local currency ratings if there are indications of nonpayment or restructuring of Sri Lankan rupee-denominated obligations.
Upside scenario
We could revise the outlook to stable or raise the local currency ratings if we perceive that the likelihood of the government’s local currency debt being excluded from any debt restructuring has increased. This could be the case if, for example, the government receives significant donor funding, which gives it some time to implement immediate and transformative reforms.
We would raise our long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating upon completion of the government’s bond restructuring. The rating would reflect Sri Lanka’s post-restructuring creditworthiness. Our post-restructuring ratings tend to be in the ‘CCC’ or low ‘B’ categories, depending on the sovereign’s new debt structure and capacity to support that debt.
Rationale
Sri Lanka’s external public debt moratorium prevents payment of interest and principal obligations due on the government’s ISBs. As such, interest payments due June 3, June 28, and July 18 on its ISBs maturing 2024, 2025, and 2026, and the principal payment on its July 25, 2022, ISB, would have been affected. Following the missed payments, and given our expectation that payment will not be made within 30 calendar days of the due date, we have lowered the issue ratings on these bonds to ‘D’ (default).
Overdue payments now include the following bonds:
US$1.0 billion, 5.875% bonds due 2022.
US$1.25 billion, 5.75% bonds due 2023.
US$500 million, 6.35% bonds due 2024.
US$1.5 billion, 6.85% bonds due 2025.
US$650 million, 6.125% bonds due 2025.
US$1.0 billion, 6.825% bonds due 2026.
US$1.5 billion, 6.20% bonds due 2027.
US$1.25 billion, 6.75% bonds due 2028.
