Sri Lanka will focus on ‘homegrown solutions’ to settle $6.9 billion external debt servicing obligations for 2022 with nearly half of these obligations falling within the 1st quarter of the year, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The country has $1.3 billion worth of obligations for January alone including a $500 million International Sovereign Bond (ISB) settlement with overall foreign debt servicing running up to $3.1 billion.
The Treasury estimated import expenditure at $23 billion for the year.
Under ‘homegrown solutions’, the Government is expecting an ambitious $20.7 billion from merchandise export earnings, $7 billion in service export earnings, $1.8 billion from tourism earnings, $7.5 Worker Remittances, and $1 billion from foreign direct investments this year.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.1 billion at-end 2021.
Amidst forex shortages, the country is facing shortages of several essential goods while inflation, driven by high food prices grow in double digits.