ECONOMYNEXT – China maintained its lead as the biggest lender to Sri Lanka providing 98.7 million US dollars in the January – May 2015 period, government data showed.
Total commitments made by bilateral lenders and multilateral lending agencies to Sri Lanka to support its public investment program during January to June 2015 came to 213.6 million dollars.
Project loans amounted to 211.2 million dollars and grants 2.4 million dollars, the data showed.
In the amount of disbursements during January to May 2015, China was followed by World Bank, Japan and Asian Development Bank which disbursed 91.4 million dollars, 83.9 million dollars and 67.1 million dollars.
Total disbursements from commitments already made by various bilateral and multilateral development partners were 467.7 million dollars (62 billion rupees), of which project loans accounted for 447.3 million dollars and the balance outright grants.
Out of total disbursement, 67 percent or 300.2 million dollars was financed by the bilateral development partners and 33 percent or 165.4 million dollars was made by multilateral development partners, a report said.
Around 38 percent of the total funds disbursed during January to May in 2015 was for expressways, roads and bridges.
Water supply and sanitation got 10 percent of the funds, health and social welfare 12 percent and power and energy 8 percent.
(Colombo/July 17, 2015)