Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s medium-term debt service challenges are substantial and pose risks to the sovereign’s debt repayment capacity, in Fitch’s view. These resources should enable Sri Lanka to meet its remaining debt maturities through the rest of this year, including a $ 1 billion international sovereign bond maturing in July. They have consistently indicated that they do not plan to seek programme financing from the IMF,” Fitch noted. The rating agency projects foreign exchange reserves to remain at about $ 4.5 billion by end-2021 before declining to $ 3.9 billion by end-2022. Tourist arrivals in the first five months of 2021 were 97% lower than the same period last year,” Fitch added.

Source: The Nation June 15, 2021 22:18 UTC