Sri Lanka raises nearly US $1 billion from international sovereign bonds

Sri Lanka has raised nearly US $1billion through international sovereign bonds, the country's central bank has said, a month after parliament had rejected plans to increase local borrowings.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said US $650 million was raised on Thursday through a 10-year bond at an annual interest rate of 6.125%.

"On the same day, the Central Bank issued 329 million dollars in Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDB) of one year one month maturity at a Weighted Average Margin (WAM) of 31.69 basis points and nine million dollars in SLDB's of two years 11 months maturity at a WAM of 353.89 bps, over six month London interbank offered rate," the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Accordingly, a total of US $988 million was raised in international sovereign bonds.

The first overseas bond issue was launched by the new regime, a month after the country's parliament had rejected a plan to raise the domestic borrowing limit by over US $3.0 billion.

The new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena, headed by the minority Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has offered several economic relief measures since assuming office in the January presidential election.

The opposition, however, accuses them of mismanaging the economy and halting mega infrastructure development projects launched by Sirisena's predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.