COLOMBO — The government of Sri Lanka has settled more than 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in foreign debt and interest payments between President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s assumption of office and February 2024, said Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, President’s Director General of Community Affairs.

In a statement issued on Friday, Tennakoon said that in the same period, the government has disbursed more than 1.3 billion dollars in multilateral loans and interest, with no outstanding arrears in loan installments or interest payments.

According to the Department of External Resources, payments totaling 760.1 million dollars have been made to the Asian Development Bank and 7 million dollars to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, he said.

During this period, 571 million dollars worth of bilateral loans and interest have also been paid, Tennakoon said.

The Sri Lankan government is also actively engaged in restructuring business loans and interest totaling more than 4.4 billion dollars acquired at high-interest rates, Tennakoon said. (Xinhua)