• Semasinghe says should learn from own mistakes and others’ mistakes

The Government of Sri Lanka took time to complete its external debt restructuring as it tried to avoid any complications such as which Zambia went through, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said.

Speaking to TV Derana on Monday (10), he said that Zambia debt restructuring saw complications even after the creditors agreed on signing Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs), which delayed Sri Lanka’s debt talks since advisors and authorities wanted to avoid such complications.

“In our discussions, we constantly ensured that what happened in Zambia won’t happen to Sri Lanka,” he added.

In November last year, the official creditors of Zambia went back on its previous agreement due to compatibility treatment over the deal with Zambia’s bondholders in early October.

The country's official creditor committee (OCC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been at odds over whether the initial deal struck with a group of bondholders in late October offered comparable debt relief from bilateral as well as commercial lenders. The IMF approved a tweaked deal but official creditors again rejected it,

The debt restructuring negotiations of Zambia again commenced in March this year with a fresh set of plans for debt treatment.

Semasinghe said that while learning from its own mistakes, Sri Lanka should also learn from the mistakes of others.

He also said that Sri Lanka did not face some of the challenges faced by the 4-5 countries which are currently undergoing debt restructuring and economic reform programmes as the authorities gained experience from each country's case.

Further, he said that the Government is confident that Sri Lanka can exceed its 3 percent projected growth in 2024 as completion of debt restructuring within the anticipated timeframe will pave the way for suspended projects to restart again and expand more.