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SRI LANKA NEWS – DECEMBER 2022 – By Victor Melder Sri Lanka owed Chinese lenders $7.4 billion – nearly a fifth of its public external debt – by the end of last year, calculations by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) showed, an estimate higher than many others. The figure was above the “often-quoted 10 to 15 percent figures,” the study said, adding a “significant portion” of the country’s debt to China had been recorded under lending to state-owned enterprises rather than central government. Crisis-hit Sri Lanka is in the midst of a debt restructuring after years of economic mismanagement combined with the COVID-19 pandemic saw the country plunge into the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 and tip into default. Export-Import Bank of China (EximBank) and China Development Bank are the two largest Chinese lenders, accounting for $4.3 billion and $3 billion respectively, according to the ...