• Over 20% of annual borrowing limit utilised for principal and interest payments by April
• Domestic debt service accounts for a large portion; GDP projection for 2025 revised down

Sri Lanka has spent about Rs 1.5 trillion for principal and interest payments in the first four months of the 2025, while utilising over 20% of the borrowing limit, Treasury officials said.

Speaking before the Committee of Public Finance (COPF), Treasury officials said that Rs. 796 billion has been spent on interest payment, which was 27% of the total allocation by the end of April and Rs. 352 billion was spent on principal payments, which was 22% of the total allocation.

The figures showed that out of the interest payments made, Rs. 705 billion was spent for paying domestic interest payment.

Moreover, officials said that out of the approved borrowing limit of Rs. 3,800 billion for 2025, Rs. 654 billion was borrowed from domestic sources while Rs. 128 billion was borrowed from foreign sources by end of April, taking total utilisation to 20.5% of the total limit.

In terms of domestic borrowings, Rs. 107 billion worth of Treasury bills were retired by the end of April and Treasury bonds worth Rs. 760 were issued on a net basis during the period.

It was also revealed that domestic debt stock stood at Rs 19.3 trillion by end of April, while the foreign debt stock stood at Rs. 11.2 trillion by end of March.

Rs. 1,515 billion worth of treasury guarantees were issued by the end of April, out of which Rs. 910 billion were issued for foreign sources.

Further, Treasury officials said that Sri Lanka has expected GDP to be at Rs. 32 trillion in rupee terms by end of 2025 from the initial projection of Rs. 33 trillion from budget 2025.

The revision in GDP in rupee terms means that the revenue collection and expenditure could reduce by Rs 150 billion in 2025.