According to a media report, India has become the largest bilateral lender to Sri Lanka by giving a total loan of $ 968 million in the four months of 2022, overtaking China.
Notably, with its predatory credit policy, China has maintained its position as Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender over the past five years. From 2017 to 2021, China has disbursed approximately $947 million. Quoting the Daily Financial Times (FT) report, ANI reported that out of the total borrowed amount, $809 million was received as market borrowing from China Development Bank. The report received data from Public Finance.
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According to the report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been the largest multilateral lender in the last five years by disbursing an amount of $610 million in 2021.
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India has disbursed $377 million and ADB has disbursed $360 million. ANI quoted Daily FT as saying that the collective amount was equivalent to 76 per cent of the total disbursements made to the island country till April 2022.
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On the other hand, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj informed about the funds provided to Sri Lanka. In the annual joint debate of the United Nations General Assembly on the report of the Peace Building Commission (PBC) and the Peace Building Fund (PBF), Ruchira Kamboj said that India has provided food and financial assistance of four billion dollars to Sri Lanka.
“In our immediate neighbourhood, we have been helping our good friend and neighbor Sri Lanka ensure food security by providing food and financial assistance of nearly $4 billion during the past few months,” Kamboj said.
In addition, India handed over 21,000 tonnes of fertilizers to Sri Lanka in August. The Indian High Commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in its tweet regarded the move as an initiative to promote friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
Since the advent of the COVID pandemic, Sri Lanka is battling its worst economic crisis with extreme inflation in the country due to lack of fuel and food. In times of crisis, India has been at the forefront of helping the country and providing financial assistance to Sri Lanka.
The country is also facing acute shortage of foreign exchange reserves which has reduced its power to import essential commodities including fuel and food. People in Sri Lanka are witnessing frequent power cuts and shortage of petrol.
(with inputs from ANI)
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