Country: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Gets Relief from World Bank as FM Walks a Careful China Line
The World Bank announced $700 million in budgetary and welfare support to Sri Lanka on Thursday. The news comes as Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry met with China’s Finance Minister Liu Kun and Exim Bank chair Wu Fulin to discuss China’s central role in his country’s debt restructuring. ...
Backgrounder: China’s Emerging Playbook in South Asia
China’s outsized role in two key South Asian debt crises (Sri Lanka and Pakistan) and its fractious cross-border relationship with India have overshadowed a larger trend: Beijing is increasingly becoming an adept navigator of South Asian complexities in order to grow its own influence in the region.
Sri Lankan President Upbeat About Debt Deal Amid Geopolitical Pressure
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed that Sri Lanka plans to announce a plan to deal with its domestic debt this week, in line with IMF benchmarks. In an interview with France24, he dismissed fears that China is delaying the process, after Chinese creditors didn’t join official debt talks in April. ...
U.S. Treasury Secretary, Chinese Premier Both Scheduled to Attend Global Financial Conference in Paris
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are both scheduled to attend the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris next week, where debt relief for the world's poorest countries is expected to be high on the agenda.
The World Bank and the IMF Are Not Aligned on China’s Response to Global South Debt Crisis
Just a few days after International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said real progress is being made in unblocking the impasse between China and developing countries over debt relief, her counterpart at the World Bank, David Malpass, conveyed a very different message on Bloomberg Television.
China Observes But Doesn’t Participate in Sri Lanka’s Inaugural Debt Meeting
Sri Lanka's major bilateral creditors convened their first meeting on Tuesday, but the country's largest bilateral lender, China, was in the room but only as an observer. “If China decides to participate, we would welcome it,” Masato Kanda, Japan’s vice minister ...
Update on China’s Role in the Burgeoning Global South Debt Crisis
There was a lot of excitement earlier this month at the IMF and World Bank's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. about rumors that the impasse between China and multilateral development banks (MDBs) had been resolved. That stalemate between the Chinese and ...
China’s Central Bank Chief Signals Beijing Will Cooperate With Other International Creditors on Debt Relief
The head of China's central bank, Yi Gang, provided the clearest indication to date Beijing is willing to retreat from its demand that multilateral development banks (MDBs) also take write-downs on their loans to the world's poorest countries. Yi told participants at ...
World Bank President Nominee in China for Critical Meetings With Finance Leaders
Ajay Banga arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for the latest stop in his worldwide job interview to become the next president of the World Bank. Banga is scheduled to meet with Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun, various leaders from the People's ...
IMF Head Kristalina Georgieva Will Go to Beijing in Bid to Break Debt Relief Impasse With China
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kirstalina Georgieva will travel to China at the end of this week for a visit that will be closely watched by finance ministries throughout the Global South. The primary purpose of Georgieva's trip is to deliver keynote ...