Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has told its parliament that Sri Lanka is trying to reduce its overall debt by $17 billion through restructuring as he sought the support of opposition parties for a nearly USD3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe also said the country would discuss debt restructuring with India and the Paris Club of creditors on one platform and with China separately.
Wickremesinghe said no final decision had been taken yet on domestic debt restructuring.
He added that Sri Lanka needs to accelerate growth to 6 percent or higher by 2028 or 2029 to repay debt and develop.
Caught in its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, the island nation of 22 million people secured an IMF loan last month.
Sri Lanka owes USD 7.1 billion to bilateral creditors, according to official government data, with USD 3 billion owed to China, USD 2.4 billion to the Paris Club, and USD 1.6 billion to India.
