Sri Lanka to go ahead with sovereign sale; 2027 bond battered

ECONOMYEXT – Sri Lanka will go ahead with an international sovereign bond as early in 2018 as possible Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy as the island’s own bonds took a beating from market volatility.

“We want to go early as possible,” Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said.

“Clearly markets have become much more volatile.”

The yield on Sri Lanka’s 6.2 percent 2027 US dollar sovereign bond which was trading around 5.4 percent, soared to about 6.1 percent amid international market volatility this month and was starting to settle lower, according Bloomberg data.

Following the defeat of the ruling coalition in local election the yields against rose above 6.2 percent.

Sri Lanka plans to sell up to 2.0 billion US dollars of dollar sovereign bonds in 2018, and go for a Samurai or Panda bond later if a liability management law is passed in parliament allowing extra debt to be raised.