Sri Lanka will complete negotiations with international bondholders within a few weeks, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on Tuesday, marking an important step for the island nation to emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades.
Speaking at Reuters NEXT conference in Singapore, Sabry said in an interview when asked when the bond restructuring efforts with creditors would be completed, "Hopefully within a few weeks."
"By the end of this month, we will have formally completed the restructuring process and, of course, next we need to start paying," he said.
Last week, Sri Lanka reached a preliminary agreement with some bondholders to advance the restructuring of around $12.5 billion in international bonds, though it still requires the consent of other private creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The country has $37 billion in external debt and reached an agreement with official creditors, including Japan, China, and India, at the end of June to restructure $10 billion of this debt.
Overall, this debt restructuring is expected to save Sri Lanka $8 billion in relief and delay capital repayments by at least four years.
