With the decision by the Hong Kong based Fitch Ratings to upgrade Sri Lanka’s credit rating, the island nation has officially ended its debt default, the Finance Ministry said here on Saturday.
Fitch upgraded Sri Lanka’s long term credit default rating to CCC+ from CCC- on Friday as it said that “the risk of another default on local currency debt has been reduced by the completion of the international sovereign bond restructuring and an improved outlook for macroeconomic indicators.”
Mahinda Siriwardana, a top bureaucrat in the Finance Ministry, said in a statement: “December 20 marked a major milestone in our economic recovery process as Sri Lanka officially exited sovereign default.”
Sri Lanka had plunged into an economic crisis when the island nation declared sovereign default in mid-April of 2022, its first since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. AlmosW Pak
Peshawar, Dec 23:
Sixteen soldiers died and eight others were injured as terrorists attacked a security check post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan early Saturday, security sources said.
The terrorist attacked Lita Sar check post in Makeen in South Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan, sources added.
This is one of the biggest attacks on the security forces in months.
The attack comes days after Pakistani security forces killed two terrorists in an intelligence-based operation in the Sararogha area of the same district.The attack comes days after Pakistani security forces killed two terrorists in an intelligence-based operation in the Sararogha area of the same district.
Law enforcement personnel acted on the reported presence of militants and killed two terrorists while two militants were apprehended in the operation in December first week.
South Waziristan is one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas, where the Army has for more than a decade been battling militants linked from banned outfits.