Mystery expert's verdict

Interest rate of Chinese loans for Sri Lanka port appropriate:

The interest rate of a Chinese loan to construct the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka is appropriate and low, an unnamed financial expert said in response to local media's questioning of the loan.

The unnamed expert said the 15-year loan agreement of Hambantota Port Phase I was signed between the China EXIM Bank and Sri Lanka in October 2007. The total loan volume was US$307 million with a grace period of four years.

"At first, the Sri Lankan team tried to seek loans from banks from other countries. However, those banks had no interest in providing loans to a country which was facing a civil war. Then, the Sri Lanka side turned to Chinese banks and companies," the expert said on condition of anonymity.

The Sri Lankan team did try to seek a preferential loan from China, he added, but the quota of China's preferential loans then to Sri Lanka had been used for the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant and other projects.

-Xinhua