Sri Lanka has been classified as a less indebted nation by the UN's Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), the Central Bank here said today.
"Sri Lanka has qualified under the less indebted category in five out of six external debt indicators in accordance with the parameters defined in the manual on effective debt management of the UN ESCAP to assess the external debt vulnerability of the country", a statement said.
In the disbursed external debt outstanding indicator, Sri Lanka is rated at 37 per cent which is above the minimum 30 per cent value cut-off for qualifying as less indebted nations.
As for the rest of the five indicators, Sri Lanka is well within the moderately indebted classification, the Central Bank noted.
The indicators came even as the government continues to come under criticism from the Opposition for its heavy borrowings.
The total foreign debt outstanding is estimated at SLRs 6600 billion (about USD 52 billion) at the end of 2012.
The opposition maintains that government borrows at a high cost to service its debts.
In the recent past, the island has been borrowing from international markets through sovereign bonds in addition to resorting to borrowings from China's Exim and Development Banks.
