He was addressing the opening ceremony of Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL) Towers in Narahenpita yesterday.

He said that Sri Lanka still have to borrow for debt servicing but emphasized that credit was been taken on favorable terms. “Sri Lanka has to increase exports and attract more FDI and increase GDP and then the country would be in a position to repay debts in six to seven years.”

Wickremesinghe said that the regaining of GSP Plus concession too would help to expand.

“The country must now expand the export basket and take advantage of the 6,000 off items that will enjoy the GSP Plus. We have been able to reduce the debt to GDP from 79% to 70% and our aim is to bring it down to 60% soon,” he said.

The Premier said they estimates that the government would have to pay at least USD one billion from 2019 to 2022 as debt servicing.

Wickremesinghe said that the total asset held in the financial institutional market was estimated to be around Rs 23 trillion. This does not count the money that is in the black market and this was nearly two times of the country’s annual GDP. These assets are nearly 38 times the total value of the currency printed by CBSL, he said. (CDN)