Sri Lanka will need about $3 billion in external assistance in the next six months to help restore supplies of essential items, including fuel and medicine, its finance minister told Reuters on Saturday.
The island nation of 22 million people has been hit by prolonged power cuts and shortages which have drawn protesters out on to the streets and put President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under mounting pressure.
“It’s a Herculean task,” finance minister Ali Sabry said in his first interview since taking office this week, referring to finding $3 billion in bridge financing as the country readies for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this month.
The country will look to restructure international sovereign bonds and seek a moratorium on payments, and is confident it can negotiate with bondholders over a $1 billion payment due in July.
“The entire effort is not to go for a hard default,” Sabry said. “We understand the consequences of a hard default.”
JP Morgan analysts estimated this week that Sri Lanka’s gross debt servicing would amount to $7 billion this year, with a current account deficit of around $3 billion.
The country has $12.55 billion in outstanding international sovereign bonds, central bank data showed, and foreign reserves of $1.93 billion at the end of March.
“The first priority is to see that we get back to the normal supply channel in terms of fuel, gas, drugs... and thereby electricity so that the people’s uprising can be addressed,” Sabry said.
Tourism affected
Anti-government protests have raged across the island for days, with at least one turning violent in the commercial capital of Colombo, in a threat to the country’s lucrative tourism industry.
“We respect your right to protest, but no violence, because it is counterproductive,” Sabry said. “Our tourism, which was beautifully coming back in February with 140,000 tourists coming in, has been severely affected.”
On Sunday thousands of protesters gathered near the president’s seafront office in Colombo, making it one of the biggest shows of public outrage in recent days.