Sri Lanka Secures USD 1.34 billion Loans From World Bank

December 18, 2016

The government has secured USD 1.34 billion in loans from the World Bank to boost the cash-strapped island’s economy over the next three years, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

The loans would be at concessionary rates and repayments spread out over 15 years, the ministry stated in a statement.

“This is a great victory for us and it will help us in the fiscal consolidation programme that the new government has started,” Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.

The good governance government also secured a USD 1.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in June after facing a balance of payments crisis.

The IMF last month described Sri Lanka’s performance since the rescue as “broadly satisfactory”, but said it needed to build its dwindling foreign reserves.