International Sovereign Bonds Archives

The Technopolitics of Dissent in Sri Lanka – By Shakthi De Silva Source:internationalaffairs.org.au Observers in Australia and elsewhere have covered Sri Lanka’s ongoing protests and accurately teased out the nuances of the situation. However, many underestimate how technology played a key role in instigating this organic social uprising. Web platforms and social media has revolutionised the politics of public dissent. They give new meaning to free expression and empower citizen journalism and activism to take a life of its own outside the traditional domains of private or state-influenced media. Information is now coproduced by people and shared on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and more. Representative democracies around the world are feeling the pinch as stories, pictures, and posts on corruption and political malpractice become viral sensations. In more ways than one, this has become a feature of the modern-day democratic techno-politic climate we live in. Nowhere is ...

A reset of economic fundamentals in Sri Lanka; Is IMF the only hope? By Raj Gonsalkorale Sri Lanka is at the precipice of an economic disaster. The country’s foreign debt is suffocating the country, it is its biggest immediate problem, and the problem for the foreseeable future unless urgent and drastic action is taken, now. The crisis arises due to several factors, the primary factor being the high component of market borrowings in the form of International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) in the country’s foreign debt portfolio. ISBs account for 47% of the debt. The following Central Bank chart shows this ISBs are short term loans attracting high interest rates (around 6%) with no grace periods while loans from international institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IMF, attract low interests and long term repayment terms including grace periods. ISBs are usually not conditional while others like WB, ADB, ...