Debt interest equals to nearly half of State Revenue in 2019 - CBSL

COLOMBO (News 1st): The Government debt to GDP ratio increased to 86.8% at the end of 2019 from 83.7% in 2018. According to the 2019 Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, outstanding central government debt increased by 8.3% to Rs. 13.031 trillion at the end of 2019. According to the CBSL, the increase in debt reflects the impact of higher net borrowings to finance the enlarged budget deficit. In 2019, the government incurred Rs. 901.4 billion as interest payments, to service its debt obligations. The share of foreign debt as a percentage of GDP rose to 42.6% in 2019, while interest payments on foreign debt increased by 16.9% to Rs. 248.6 billion, due to the rise in foreign commercial borrowings during the year. Interest payments continued to be the single largest recurrent expenditure item, accounting for 39.2% of total recurrent expenditure, and equivalent to 47.7% of the government revenue in 2019.