Sri Lanka pays USD 500 Mn sovereign bond matured today

Sri Lanka has paid off USD 500 million International Sovereign Bond (ISB) that matured today (January 18), says the Central Bank Governor.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal stated this in a tweet published on his official account.

Sri Lanka has paid the USD 500 million sovereign #bond that matured today (18). @IMFNews @MoodysInvSvc @FitchRatings @SPGlobalRatings @CBSL #SriLanka

— Ajith Nivard Cabraal (@an_cabraal) January 18, 2022

Meanwhile, USD 1 billion in sovereign bonds is falling due on July 25 this year, Dr. M. Z. M. Aazim, the Superintendent & Registrar of Central Bank’s Public Debt Department said joining Ada Derana ‘Aluth Parlimenthuwa’ last week.

As Sri Lanka was making arrangements to repay the first tranche of its maturing debt, the global rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) last week lowered long-term sovereign credit rating on the country from ‘CCC+’ to ‘CCC’ citing greater sovereign default risk.

The Sri Lankan government slammed the move, saying it is perturbed by the announcement by S&P Global Ratings, at a time when it has diligently lined up adequate funds to repay its maturing foreign debt liabilities and its repeated assurances over the strong commitment to oblige its debt service payments.

Sri Lanka has a total of USD 6.9 billion in debt to be repaid in 2022.

-with inputs from agencies