Sri Lanka

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.

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.