Sri Lanka declared Tuesday that with critically low foreign exchange reserves, the crisis-hit country will default on its external public debt pending a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. It is the first time that the South Asian island nation has announced debt default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. The default-triggering crisis was apparently attributable to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has severely hit the country's cash-earning tourism sector, and the so-called debt trap involving heavy borrowings from China for unsustainable infrastruc...
