You Give We Spend

Sri Lanka's top Treasury official says the country will not accept debt relief next year, unless it is given without strings.



Sri Lanka's top Treasury official says the country will not accept debt relief next year, unless it is given without strings. Treasury Secretary Dr. P B Jayasundera who asked top lenders to extend debt relief for another year says, last year's relief was not a big help, and he did not ask for it anyway.

Dr Jayasundera was speaking at a seminar organized by the Sri Lanka Association of Economists.

He says the donors have a duty to help Sri Lanka with another year of debt moratorium because oil prices are now too high.

"There is a responsibility on the development partners to help us to consolidate the process we have started, confronted with the oil shock on top of tsunami," said Dr Jayasundera.

But Sri Lanka will not accept any strings attached to the relief.

Such relief will have to be unconditional.

"It has to be unconditional debt relief, - it can't come with tight programs which will weaken Sri Lanka's overall policy, we have in mind," said Jayasundera.

-LBR Newsdes