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  1. #1
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    Sri Lanka is ... er ... fcuked!

    No South Asia sub-forum here, so I'll post the gloomy news that Sri Lanka has defaulted on its debt repayments.

    Sri Lanka defaults on debt for first time in its history - BBC News

    So for once, it seems as if I made the right decision a few months ago to cross Sri Lanka off my list of potential living locations ....
    Groping women when you're old is fine - everyone thinks you're senile

  2. #2
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    Its been a catalogue of F k ups

    from a ruling family posting members into political positions they are entirely unsuited to, to indebting the country to the Chinkies, to thinking they can print money to solve the internal financial crisis and to enforcing the whole country to go organic with the effect that food production has crashed - you couldn't make the shit up. Sadly for the people its not a nightmare they are going to wake from but one they will have to live for years with. I was going to start a thread on it a couple of months ago but decided it was too depressing given all the other depressing threads we have running.

  3. #3
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    indebting the country to the Chinkies
    !0% of Foreign debt is owed to China, 10% to Japan, and some 40% to the ADB.

  4. #4
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    Well, it depends what you read and what those numbers show i.e. after debt for asset swaps the Chinkie scum knew would happen when they lent the funds for much of the infra programmes post 2008.

    https://eias.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/EIAS-Policy-Brief-Infrastructure-Financing-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf

  5. #5
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    So you are saying it's all Chinas fault, who have lent them 10% of their foreign debt? Of course you are.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    !0% of Foreign debt is owed to China, 10% to Japan, and some 40% to the ADB.
    Yeah. This is being heralded as the premier Chinese debt trap but its not actually true. There's an article that explains it well somewhere.

    But Simon. Doesn't this mean that its a good country to move to ? Collapsed currrency. What more do you need

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    There's an article that explains it well somewhere
    Sure there is. Written by the CCP.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    !0% of Foreign debt is owed to China, 10% to Japan, and some 40% to the ADB.
    Yeah, we already know how chinkystan hides it, but nice try.

    In the report, AidData examined more than 13,000 BRI projects worth more than $843bn in 165 countries between 2000 and 2017. It found China’s overseas lending had dramatically shifted from government-to-government loans during the pre-BRI era, to almost 70% now going to state-owned companies and banks, joint ventures, private institutions, and special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
    This had led to extensive underreporting of repayment obligations – to an estimated $385bn – because the primary borrowers are no longer central government institutions with stricter reporting requirements.
    China owed $385bn – including ‘hidden debt’ from poorer nations, says report | China | The Guardian


  9. #9
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    Sri Lanka is beautiful- 'serendipity'. I could easily live in the Galle/ Uluwatu area. The Lankan currency will likely weaken too- making it a great bargain, and in their desperation for foreign currency the government might well make it easier for foreigners to reside there. One to keep an eye on. When I was last there, the civil war was still raging, but in the east and north. A terrorist bomb had recently gone off in Colombo though, near the central bank.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    So you are saying it's all Chinas fault, who have lent them 10% of their foreign debt? Of course you are.
    No, i listed a range of issues the country is facing, you said I am saying its all the chinkies fault. Really you are just looking for yet another thread to spread more of your shit around. The size of the debt % is irrelevant, its how its exercised - now do fuk off you tiresome twat.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Sri Lanka is beautiful- 'serendipity'. I could easily live in the Galle/ Uluwatu area. The Lankan currency will likely weaken too- making it a great bargain, and in their desperation for foreign currency the government might well make it easier for foreigners to reside there. One to keep an eye on. When I was last there, the civil war was still raging, but in the east and north. A terrorist bomb had recently gone off in Colombo though, near the central bank.
    It was already pretty easy to get a renewable, annual visa. Just bring in $1,500 a month, same as Mauritius where I (temporarily) ended up.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Simon43 View Post
    It was already pretty easy to get a renewable, annual visa. Just bring in $1,500 a month, same as Mauritius where I (temporarily) ended up.
    Plus of course Saband would be very happy with Chinese induced defaults.

    The exchange rate is only attractive until the price of staples goes through the roof and supermarket shelves are empty …. lol

  13. #13
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    Had probably the best seafood meal of my life in Hikkaduwa- 24 inch full lobster from the tank, fresh fish- large fillet + fresh whitebait, prawns & squid, shared with my ex. Cheap as chips too. None of that was imported- it comes from the rich waters right off the coast.

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Doesn't sabang fill threads with useless, irrelevant waffle when he wants to distract from the subject at hand?

    I dare say he'll find what he thinks is an amusing meme to deflect from the suffering Sri Lanka is going through at the hands of the predatory chinkies.

  15. #15
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Doesn't sabang fill threads with useless, irrelevant waffle when he wants to distract from the subject at hand?

    I dare say he'll find what he thinks is an amusing meme to deflect from the suffering Sri Lanka is going through at the hands of the predatory chinkies.
    That wasn't the subject at hand.

    Numpty told him to shut up about Chinese involvement and he did, now you're off on your hobby horse again.

  16. #16
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    Guess I'm a glass half full and you're a glass half empty kinda guy 'arry. Did I tell you about the tiffin in Hill country?

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    That wasn't the subject at hand.

    Numpty told him to shut up about Chinese involvement and he did, now you're off on your hobby horse again.
    The thread is about Sri Lanka defaulting on its debts.

    But don't let that stop you whining, you carping harridan.


    Sri Lanka is ... er ... fcuked!-mrs_brady_old_lady-png

  18. #18
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    No, i listed a range of issues the country is facing, you said I am saying its all the chinkies fault.
    It mostly is, but in recent years the cunning chinkies have taken to trying to hide their involvement (see above).
    Last edited by harrybarracuda; 20-05-2022 at 04:20 PM.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    There's an article that explains it well somewhere.
    Groan . . . find it, post it or shut up.




    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    The size of the debt % is irrelevant, its how its exercised
    Not quite irrelevant but definitely a valid point . . . which sabang would know if he had any idea of finance

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Belt and Owed.

    When President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family stormed to power in Colombo in 2019, Beijing had much cause to celebrate. Only years earlier, the new president’s elder brother, Mahinda, had been instrumental in heralding a new era of Chinese influence in his country — hosting an array of dazzling infrastructure projects under Beijing’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

    The projects had turned Sri Lanka into a strategic outpost in the Indian Ocean for Beijing. Geography had been especially significant: Sri Lanka gave China access to the waters beyond the Malacca Strait chokepoint between Malaysia and Singapore, through which much of China’s trade heading to Africa and West Asia passes.

    But after Mahinda Rajapaksa lost power in 2015, a difficult period of coalition politics ensued, and Beijing
    lost the privileged access that it had previously enjoyed. When the Rajapaksa brothers finally returned to take the presidency in 2019 and win parliamentary elections with a thumping majority the following year, Beijing hoped that it could ramp up its presence in the Indian Ocean through further cooperation with them.


    All that has now changed.

    In the last few days,
    clashes have erupted on the streets of Colombo, costing lives and forcing Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign and be hastily airlifted out of his residence. The political crisis appears unlikely to be resolved soon, even as Sri Lanka struggles to gain access to funds in order to pay for its imports.

    The ongoing meltdown in Colombo has brought about a spectacular change in fortunes for Chinese foreign policy, and it could also have serious implications for Beijing’s presence in the Indian Ocean and for the future potential of its global infrastructure investment plan.

    Even before the Rajapaksas came to power in 2019,
    popular protests had hindered Chinese infrastructure projects in various parts of the country. But in the ongoing economic crisis, those projects have been bandied about by protestors as infamous examples of Sri Lanka’s crippling debt problem. A swanky port in Hambantota — the Rajapaksas’ hometown — cost $1.4 billion in Chinese loans, but it lost $300 million in six years.An airport was built nearby with a $200 million loan from China, but it has been used so sparingly that it was unable to cover even its own electricity bills at one point. A conference center in the same city cost over $15 million, but it has remained largely unused, according to reports.


    China’s failed projects are already helping fuel criticism that its infrastructure investment is a “debt trap.”

    These stories will especially spark concern in many poor countries with income levels far below Sri Lanka’s. If Sri Lanka — a country that has led South Asia on multiple socioeconomic indicators for several years — couldn’t recover profits from such swanky infrastructure, Chinese debt is unlikely to reassure the likes of Nigeria, Kenya or Ethiopia.


    But making matters worse has been China’s own response to the crisis. So far, Beijing has been conspicuous in its absence in terms of offering assistance to Colombo. Prior to its default on foreign loans, Sri Lanka had appealed to Beijing to have its loans rescheduled.

    But China was
    reluctant to roll over loans under BRI, fearing that it would set a bad precedent for its investment in other parts of the world. Ultimately, Sri Lanka went to the IMF for help.


    To some extent, Beijing’s own hands have been tied. A fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in China’s major cities has poked holes in President Xi Jinping’s “zero-COVID” policy.

    Shanghai has been under strict lockdown rules for weeks, sparking widespread discontent and economic passivity. This April, industrial output across China had
    fallen by 2.9 percent compared to a year earlier. Retail sales had shrunk by over 11 percent year on year.


    But through its absence, China has now
    yielded strategic space to India. So far, New Delhi has extended over $3 billion in financial assistance to Colombo and deferred repayment of loans worth at least $2 billion. India’s influence during the crisis has been so far-reaching, in fact, that one student protestor in Colombo told Quartz, “If [the Indians] ask the president for the clothes off his back, he has to give them up.”


    With the spotlight firmly on Ukraine, Beijing might not currently give much thought to its vanishing foothold in Sri Lanka. But if the crisis persists in Colombo, it could have long-term repercussions for China’s strategic influence in the Indian Ocean and the future of its Belt and Road Initiative.

    https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/sri-...e-in-jeopardy/

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Not quite irrelevant but definitely a valid point . . . which sabang would know if he had any idea of finance
    Yes i was being a bit flippant, however the point being that the ADB and WB et al will reschedule debt or even write if off rather than see a country fail, Chinas answer is to force countries to hand over assets, they'll still lend more....

  22. #22
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    ^ Very true

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    Yes i was being a bit flippant, however the point being that the ADB and WB et al will reschedule debt or even write if off rather than see a country fail, Chinas answer is to force countries to hand over assets, they'll still lend more....
    Actually if Sri Lanka go begging, the chinky loan sharks would probably up the interest rate even higher.

  24. #24
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    China . . . no support for friends despite pleas for help. Scumbags



  25. #25
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    China . . . no support for friends despite pleas for help. Scumbags


    Whilst all debt is not a problem it can be divided into good and bad debt. Investment in infrastucture is often classified as good debt if it improves efficiencies and productivity in industry and exports.The problem with Chinese debt in Sri Lanka, as in many developing countries on the belt and road the infrastructure in both the new port and the new airport to service it are two huge white elephants with little use of either the port or airport. China often steps in where western finance has deemed projects not economically sustainable putting countries into "bad" debt with no economic benefit and is next to impossible to repay. The Chinese at some point are going to end up with many third world defaulters.

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