Myanmar says it has enough funds to avert Sri Lanka-like crisis

Bloomberg

Myanmar has sufficient foreign reserves to avoid an economic crisis similar to Sri Lanka’s, the military government said, pushing back on suggestions by some analysts that the Southeast Asian nation faces a growing possibility of default.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the State Administration Council, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Myanmar has a “fair share of foreign-currency reserves,” including US dollars and yuan, without giving specific figures.
The regime, which toppled a civilian government headed by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup, has cracked down on the use of foreign currencies since April to shore up dwindling international reserves. Cars and luxury-goods imports have been banned.
“There is no reason to face a Sri Lanka-like economic decline because Myanmar already has US dollar reserves to some extent,” Zaw Min Tun said in response to a question on whether Myanmar could become the next Sri Lanka. “We already have the basics to avoid such an economic decline.”
Malayan Banking Bhd. said in a report last week that Myanmar is among the frontier-market economies where the likelihood of sovereign defaults is growing.