Business & Finance

Sri Lanka won't draw balance of IMF loan

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"If we do not draw any further money, we will have to pay only a 1.1 percent interest rate for the entire loan. But otherwise for the entire $2.6 billion loan, we will have to pay at 3.1 percent," Cabraal told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"That is why we thought it is better for us to not to take any money."

Sri Lanka has already received $1.8 billion of the loan in seven tranches since July 2009, but the IMF has withheld the eighth tranche since September after the central bank failed to allow flexibility in the rupee exchange rate.

Copyright Reuters, 2012