Sri Lanka, April 21 -- On 12 January 2019, The Island newspaper quoted the following statement made by MP Mahinda Rajapaksa:
"In the past four years, the UNP-led government has borrowed the equivalent of 50% of the total national debt that was outstanding as at the end of December 2014 from the loans taken in the six decades after gaining independence in February 1948."
An analysis of the data shows that MP Rajapaksa is incorrect about this claim.
Exhibit 1 shows, in both LKR and USD, the total domestic and foreign debt as at end of 2014 (end of Mr. Rajapaksa's presidency) and also at the end of Sept-2018 (the latest month for which data was available at the time Mr. Rajapaksa made the statement). Our calculations show that the increa...