There's no evidence to support the claim that China's BRI 'debt-trap diplomacy' is to blame for Sri Lanka's debt burden.

SRI Lanka is grappling with the deepest economic crisis it has ever seen. The country has defaulted on its $78 billion worth of payments to international creditors, the first time in its history since its independence. Its debt obligations for this year alone exceed $7 billion, yet Sri Lanka's foreign reserves stood at $1.93 billion at the end of March. The island nation is also seeing an extreme scarcity of food, fuel and other essential items such as medicines, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts.

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