Bangladesh
Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Bangladesh gives Sri Lanka 6 more months to repay loan
Dhaka, January 13: The government of Bangladesh gave a loan of 20 crore dollars to Sri Lanka from the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank. Bangladesh has given the country six more months to repay that debt. The Board of Directors of Bangladesh Bank has decided to extend the time.
With this, Sri Lanka, which is in extreme financial distress recently, has been extended one more time to repay the debt. According to international debt management, there is a rule to pay off debt to larger donors first. Because of this, the people concerned have given the impression that it will take about 15 years to get back the loan of 20 million dollars given to Sri Lanka.
This decision came when the matter was raised in the 426th meeting of the Bangladesh Bank Board of Directors on Thursday (January 12). Later the matter was informed about the board meeting held at the bank's head office. Currently, Sri Lanka is facing severe financial crisis. The country is not in a position to repay the loan of 20 million dollars taken from Bangladesh a year and a half ago. In the meantime, Bangladesh Bank has decided to extend the loan repayment period one more time. Sri Lanka first requested an extension of three months to repay the loan taken through currency swap. As the financial condition of the country becomes progressively more fragile, the time is gradually extended at their request.
Sri Lanka seeks loan from Bangladesh in 2021 to meet foreign exchange demand. Bangladesh stood by the country with a loan of 20 million dollars. According to the decision, Bangladesh Bank approved the loan of USD 25 crore, but later disbursed USD 20 crore in installments. The loan taken under the 'currency swap' system was supposed to be repaid within three months. In case of this loan, the interest rate is determined by adding 2 percent to the LIBOR rate. However, economically fragile Sri Lanka failed to repay its loans on time.
