cchandrasekhar2_ISHARA S. KODIKARAAFP via Getty Images_ sri lanka ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Sri Lanka’s People Need a New Debt Deal

Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, must reject his predecessor’s recent debt-restructuring deal with bondholders. That agreement would inflict unnecessary pain on Sri Lanka’s population and set a dangerous precedent, undermining other developing economies’ ability to restructure their foreign debts.

COLOMBO –Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka’s president, recently lost his re-election bid after voters overwhelmingly rejected the debt-restructuring deals he negotiated with the International Monetary Fund and other creditors. Instead, Sri Lankans elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the left-wing National People’s Power (NPP) alliance and a vocal critic of IMF-imposed austerity measures, who has vowed to renegotiate the country’s agreement with the Fund.

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