As a large creditor to Sri Lanka, China is welcome to join the effort steered by Japan, India, and France to help the island nation cope with its debt distress, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. She also called upon the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to speed up relief measures for countries facing debt vulnerabilities.
Terming multilateral development banks (MDBs) reforms and debt-relief measures for many stressed economies as the top two finance track priorities for India during its G-20 Presidency, Ms Sitharaman said that a comprehensive, better, and quicker approach is required to address the problem within the common framework of the IMF and World Bank, as well as “outside” it.
“I quote the ‘outside of it’ equally as much as within the framework, as we have the example of Sri Lanka, a middle-income country that got into distress because its earnings were limited to tourism and some other areas like the export of tea… Sri Lanka required a quick redressal, although outside of the framework because they are a middle-income country,” she noted in a discussion at the India-Japan Forum. The Hindu
