Sri Lanka asks for loan deferral

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is pressing for a deferment in repaying his country’s debt to China. Rajapaksa said this during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Colombo on Sunday. Sri Lanka is currently facing a foreign exchange crisis that has brought the island nation to the brink of default. The country must repay about $4.5 billion this year, starting with a $500 million international sovereign bond (ISB) that matures on January 18.