Sri Lanka’s total government external debt stood at US$37,468 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026, a nominal decline of US$195 million from US$37,663 million at the close of the fourth quarter of 2025, the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) said in its March 2026 Statistical Debt Bulletin.
The bulletin, reported by EconomyNext, also showed central government debt within total gross public debt at US$98,965 million at end-March.
Multilateral lenders continued to dominate the external debt mix, accounting for 38 per cent of the stock, followed by commercial debt at 34 per cent and bilateral credit at 28 per cent.
Within multilateral debt, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank together held more than 82 per cent of the stock, reinforcing their role as Sri Lanka’s principal long-term external financiers. Roughly 81 per cent of commercial debt was made up of International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs), with the balance in foreign-currency term financing facilities.
On the bilateral side, 59 per cent was held by non-Paris Club creditors led heavily by China, while Paris Club countries accounted for 41 per cent.
The PDMO said Sri Lanka had made “substantial structural progress” in resolving the debt crisis triggered by the April 2022 service moratorium. Comprehensive bilateral restructuring agreements and an ISB exchange completed in late 2024 had since allowed the government to “steadily institutionalize regular debt servicing” to its external creditors. The completion of those tracks underpinned the Global Sovereign Debt Restructuring framework and follow-on settlements such as the South Korea EDCF $267m bilateral deal signed in May.
The Q1 print stamps the post-restructuring stock at a level below the pre-default peak and provides a fresh baseline for the IMF’s mid-2026 review work, which has continued to flag Middle East fuel pressures as the dominant near-term risk to the sovereign balance sheet.
Source: EconomyNext.
