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Government domestic borrowings surpass Rs. 1.6 tn in first four months

04 Jul 2022

  • Increase of Rs. 1 tn compared to same period last year
  • Over Rs. 1 tn raised through Treasury Bonds: Finance Min.
  • Total borrowing limit approved by Parliament for 2022 is Rs. 3.2 tn
    By Imesh Ranasinghe  The Government has recorded gross domestic borrowings of Rs 1.6 trillion in the first four months of 2022, with over Rs. 1 trillion raised through Treasury Bonds, according to the mid-year fiscal report by the Ministry of Finance. Accordingly, the report showed that 60% of the domestic borrowing (over Rs. 1 trillion) was raised from Treasury bonds, 31% (Rs. 518.2 billion) from Treasury bills, and 4.4% (Rs 73.8 billion) through provisional advances from the central bank, while Rs 65.6 billion was raised from Sri Lanka development bonds. Gross domestic borrowings amounted to Rs. 608.3 billion in the same period of 2021. The total borrowing limit approved by Parliament for 2022 amounted to Rs. 3,200 billion, out of which Rs. 1,754.1 billion was utilised in the period between January to April 2022. In June, Parliament increased the approved credit limit by Rs 1,000 billion to a total of Rs 4,000 billion for 2022, as, according to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Rs. 1,950 billion out of the previous credit limit of Rs 3,200 billion was utilised by the second week of May. Moreover, the report from the Treasury showed that the Government has incurred Rs. 341.9 billion in interest payments for domestic debt during January-April 2022, an increase of 24.8%  compared to Rs. 273.8 billion in the same period of 2021. Therefore, the total expenditure on interest payments including both domestic and foreign debt increased by 16.5% to Rs. 426.8 billion in the first four months of 2022, compared to Rs. 366.2 billion in the same period of 2021, while interest payments on foreign debt fell by 8.1% to Rs. 84.9 billion in the first four months of 2022, compared to Rs. 92.4 billion in the same period of 2021. “The net borrowing at the end of the period under review was Rs. 1,148.5 billion,” the report said.


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