Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's largest party warned Tuesday that the island could default on its debt as Moody's slashed its credit rating and a bitter power struggle dragged into a fourth week, Daily Mail reported. The South Asian nation has been gripped by an unprecedented political crisis since the president sacked his prime minister on October 26 and appointed former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse in his place. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the ousted premier and leader of the United National Party -- the largest single party in parliament -- refused to step down, declaring his sacking illegal.
Sri Lanka plans to put two state-owned hotel companies up for sale within the next six months in a sale that could raise $500 million for the island nation as it seeks to bolster its finances, the finance minister said on Tuesday. Sri Lanka faces repayments on expensive infrastructure foreign loans starting this year and already has a hefty debt burden, while its rupee currency has plumbed record lows, Reuters reported. “We’re going through the legal hoops of preparing (the sales),” State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne said in an interview.
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Sri Lanka's public debt repayments will grow to a record $4 billion in 2019, the finance ministry said, blaming "colossal borrowing" by the previous government, Reuters reported. "Sri Lanka is embroiled in a gigantic debt trap," Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said in a statement. The cost of repaying and servicing foreign-held debt will jump more than 32 percent this year to $2.42 billion from 2016's 1.83 billion, rising to $2.56 billion next year, it said.
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Sri Lanka’s central bank cut one key interest rate while holding another after inflation eased to the lowest level in about two years, ignoring advice from the International Monetary Fund to hold off on further easing, Bloomberg News reported. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka reduced the benchmark reverse repurchase rate, which it renamed the standing lending facility rate, by 50 basis points to 8 percent, Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said in an interview in Colombo on Dec. 31.
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