Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in Sri Lanka seeking to advance Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative as the island nation tries to rescue itself from a foreign currency and debt crisis.
Central Bank figures show that current Chinese loans to Sri Lanka total around $3.38 billion not including loans to state-owned businesses, which are accounted for separately.
The situation has left households facing severe shortages. People wait in long lines to buy essential goods like milk powder, cooking gas and kerosene. Prices have increased sharply and the Central Bank says the inflation rate rose to 12.1% by the end of December from 9.9% in November. Food inflation increased to over 22% in the same period.
Expatriate remittances have also fallen after the government ordered the mandatory conversion of foreign currency and controls over exchange rates. The Central Bank has added a currency swap in Chinese currency worth $1.5 billion to the reserves but economists disagree whether it can be part of foreign reserves or not.
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