Sri Lanka’s public debt stood at $ 107.5 billion by the end of March as the domestic central government debt crossed $ 65 billion, Finance Ministry data showed.

According to the first quarter debt bulletin by the Finance Ministry, the Public Debt of Sri Lanka stood at $ 107.5 billion and the central government at $ 102.6 billion by the end of March.

Domestic debt component saw an increase of 1.3% from December 2024 to $ 65.4 billion as the government issued $ 8.9 billion worth of Treasury bills and bonds in the first quarter, while repaying $ 9.06 billion of domestic debt.

External debt position stood at $ 37.2 billion following a successful restructuring by the end of 2024, borrowing $ 428.1 million mainly through multilateral agencies and repaying $ 406.6 million, where bilateral repayment stood at $ 80.4 million and market repayment stood at $ 88.5 million.

The Finance Ministry added that 65% of the government’s external debt consists of the instruments obtained at fixed interest rates, whereas 24% at floating interest rates.

Data also showed that following the restructuring of international sovereign bonds (ISBs), the maturity of $ 2.15 billion worth of ISBs in 2025 was pushed down to just $ 330 million.

Sri Lanka should reach 95% of debt-to-GDP ratio on public debt by 2032 as part of the Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), however, speaking at Parliament yesterday (30), Deputy Minister of Economic Development Prof. Anil Jayantha Fernando said that there is a possibility of bringing the debt to GDP down to around 90% within the existing DSA by 2032.