Can Sri Lanka trade its way back to prosperity? - BBC News

Ben Chu, Newsnight's economic editor, takes a closer look at the country's economic woes.

14 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Sri Lanka still hasn't seen the number of visiting tourists return to pre-Covid levelsBy Ben ChuEconomics editor, NewsnightSri Lanka is, in the words of its own president, "bankrupt".

The Indian Ocean nation defaulted on its sovereign debt in May 2022, plunging the country into economic and political chaos.

The Colombo government secured a $2.9bn (£2.4bn) International Monetary Fund bailout in principle the following September.

But the cash will not be released to Sri Lanka until its sovereign creditors in China and India first agree to a restructuring of the billions of dollars of bilateral debt they are owed.

Despite optimism over the past month that such an agreement was imminent, a deal has still not materialised - and Sri Lanka's economic agony, and the suffering of its population, continues.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64464220?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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