Sri Lanka’s Mahendran Seeks Overseas Loans to Reduce Debt Costs

Sri Lankan central bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran is seeking concessional overseas loans to refinance costlier debt and reduce reliance on global bond markets.

“We are looking at tens of billions of dollars” from lenders including the U.S., Japan and the European Union, Mahendran said in a telephone interview from Colombo. Concessional credit will “eventually refinance most of the commercial lending the country has contracted in the last five to seven years.”