Voting for the presidential election in Sri Lanka kicked off on Saturday, with over 17 million registered voters to elect the country's president for the next five years.
A total of 38 candidates contest in this year's presidential election, including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawega (SJB), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power (NPP).
Voting started at 7:00 local time on Saturday and will end at 16:00 on the same day. The final result will be revealed on Sunday.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won the presidential election in November 2019, resigned from the post in July 2022 amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country.
Wickremesinghe was elected as president in an election held in parliament following Rajapaksa's resignation.
Two years after the country declared bankruptcy, economic issues will play a major role in the outcome of the election.
"I think the prices of food, prices of daily essentials, prices of things like petrol, diesel, those are the things that are going to be on top of the mind of the voters," said Riyad Riffai, one of the voters.
Voting for Sri Lanka's presidential election kicks off
China's external debt remained generally stable, with outstanding external debt reaching nearly 2.33 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, official data showed on Friday.
This figure was down 15.5 billion dollars, or 0.7 percent, from the end of 2024, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
China's external debt currency structure had improved in 2025, while the maturity structure remained basically stable, said Li Bin, deputy head and spokesperson of the administration.
At the end of 2025, local currency-denominated external debt had accounted for 55.5 percent of the total, up 1.4 percentage points from the end of 2024, said Li.
In terms of maturity structure, medium- and long-term external debt accounted for 43.5 percent of the total at the end of 2025, down 0.6 percentage points from the end of 2024, Li noted.
Data also revealed that at the end of last year, China's ratio of outstanding external debt to gross domestic product had stood at 11.9 percent, while the ratio of outstanding external debt to export revenue was 56.3 percent.
These indicators remained within internationally recognized safety thresholds, and China's external debt risks are generally controllable, Li explained.
China reports generally stable external debt in 2025
