Sri Lanka has completed a restructuring of $5.8bn of debt owed to a group of creditor nations, marking a significant step in the cash-strapped south Asian nation’s efforts to exit a two-year-old default. The finalisation of a deal with a committee of official lenders including India, Japan and France in Paris on Wednesday was a “significant milestone” in ending Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, the country’s finance minister Shehan Semasinghe said on Wednesday.
Early debt relief negotiations were beset by delays as Beijing eschewed the standard international framework for dealing with debt crises, and insisted on differing treatment for debts owed to a range of Chinese banks. Sri Lanka also needs to finalise a separate deal with China Development Bank, which is classed as a commercial creditor that is owed about $2.1bn. Details of the deal announced on Wednesday have not been disclosed.