Courtesy Adaderana Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) has decided to increase the price of Petrol 92 Octane by Rs 7.00 per litre and the price hike is set to take effect from midnight today (10). The revised price, which was previously at Rs 140.00 as per the price hike announced by the Lanka IOC last […]

By Paneetha Ameresekere Courtesy Ceylon Today Foreign debt liabilities increased significantly by ‘six percentage points in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) terms’ to 41.2 per cent of the GDP last year (2018) led by a rapid depreciation of the Rupee and low GDP growth in the review period, the Finance Ministry, in a document released on […]

වියත්මග මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය මතුගමදී පැවති ‘වියත්මග’ සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණය අමතමින් ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා මහතා මෙම අදහස් පල කලේය. අද ගොඩක් දෙනෙක් කතා කරන්නේ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැනයි. ඒ වගේම බොහෝ දෙනෙක්ට අද  අමතක වෙලා රටේ ආර්ථිකය ගැන. ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැන කතා කරන කවුරුත් ආපස්සට ගිය ආර්ථිකය ගැන කතා කරන්නේ නැහැ. අද මෙරට ඉතිහාසයේ නොවූ විරූ ආකාරයේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයකට […]

Dinesh Perera J M Keynes on IndiaThe available statistics appear to show that, whether the phenomena are connected or not, the rise of prices has nearly been proportional to the increase of currency”[1]Apart from the fluctuations of the seasons the Indian level of prices is most influenced at the present time by the extent to […]

Risk-sensitive economic planning and coherence between climate and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies are vital in building resilient societies and economies as envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez stated. He made these remarks addressing the Sixth Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it was holding its forecast for Sri Lanka’s 2019 economic growth at 3.5% in spite of devastating Easter bombings, saying it was too early to assess financial damage.FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, […]

Sri Lanka’s debt crisis and Chinese loans – separating myth from reality. By Umesh Moramudali Sri Lanka is often portrayed as a country that fell into a debt trap as a result of public investment projects financed by China. One such investment project was Hambantota port, which was leased to China Merchant Port Holdings Limited (CM […]

Press Release Pathfinder Foundation Spatial Planning and Regional Development was the theme of the recently held roundtable jointly organized by the Pathfinder Foundation (PF) and the Academy of Macroeconomic Research (AMR) of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China. The AMR delegation that visited Colombo, was headed by Director General Dr. Gao Guoli. […]

SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) Australia In the aftermath of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, the prime Minister of Sri Lankan Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27/04/2019 announced that the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement was signed and that this agreement has provided Sri Lanka USD 500 million which could be […]

Courtesy Adaderana Speaking at a foreign media interview, Kishu Gomes, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, stated that the Easter Day attacks are a blow in the economy at large, not just tourism industry. However, the Chairman says that when considering other tourist destinations which also received similar attacks in similar incidents […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s tourism industry fears losing around $1.5 billion in revenue this year due to Sunday’s attacks, the country’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. Tourism will be the worst affected,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo on Friday. We expect a 30 percent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 […]

Courtesy The Straits Times Country with already precarious external position may be forced to seek more IMF aid HONG KONG • Sri Lanka faces a likely collapse of tourism following the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels, which would deal a severe blow to the island’s economy and financial markets, and potentially force […]

RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Ceylon Today The immediate implementation of the ‘Least Cost Long Term Solar Power Generation Plan’ will save a total of Rs 266 billion for the Sri Lankan economy, the Secretary of the Solar Industries Association (SIA), Lakmal Fernando claimed today (18). He said this at a SIA Press conference held in Colombo. […]

By Frank Vogl Courtesy Ceylon Today Amidst Trump administration flame-throwing, top experts worry about the ability of the main multilateral institutions safeguarding the global economy. On the 75th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference that established the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Finance and Development Ministers and Central Bank Governors from across the world […]

C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island In this interview, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about the tax policy of the UNP government since 2015 and the Budget for 2019. Q. You were a private sector person for the better part of your career. How is the Sri Lankan private sector taking the […]

RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Ceylon Today The continuous power cuts carried out by the Ceylon Electricity Board has adversely affected exports and potential Foreign Direct Investments, claimed Executive Committee Member of the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce, Dr. Krishanth Wisenthige today (10). He was speaking at a ‘Professionals for a Better Future (Viyathmaga)’ press conference […]

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today Compared to Sri Lanka (25,330 sqkms.), Bolivia (1,098, 581 sqkms) is relatively a large country. However, Sri Lanka with around 22 million is more populous than Bolivia, the population of which is estimated at 11 million. Since 2005, a sea change has been taking place in Bolivia covering every […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Power Cuts to the extent of 2 to 3 hours has been the order of the day and the news is just out that we are about to buy 500MW of Power from three Multinationals Agrico, V Power included, our estimated excess requirements for the next 5 years.. What is also important […]

By Prof. Tissa Vitarana Courtesy Ceylon Today BMost people in Sri Lanka are unhappy (Sri Lanka has dropped from the 116th place to the 130th place in the United Nations global ‘Happiness Index,’ out of 156 countries, this year), deeply concerned and bewildered by what is going on in our country. They keep asking what […]

By Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri Courtesy The Island In response to the writer’s previous articles on the present power crisis published in the Island of March 28th and April 05th, he has received from an investor some new information which would shed light on the real party behind the present power crisis. This investor claims that […]

PANEETHA AMERESEKERE Courtesy Ceylon Today Government of Sri Lanka’s (GoSL’s) foreign debt payments cost the country’s foreign reserves US$ 813.26 million last month (March) alone, latest official data showed. Additionally, this month (April), at least one foreign debt amounting to $ 500 million which also matures has to be repaid. This is a $ 500 […]

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS The yahapalana regime initiated with the 2015 presidential election had undisclosed motives and a deformed face in its operation to the country and the pattern of its operation showed that it was associated with highly dishonest elements. At the outset, Mr. Maithrepala Sirisena didn’t know about the president of the party (Swan […]

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror While claiming that people in rural areas had fallen prey to illegal loan schemes including micro-financing organisations, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today urged the government to take steps to ban such organisations and to waive off loans obtained by the people from such organisations. He told […]

By Prof. O. A. Ileperuma Courtesy The Island The budget 2019 reports a massive 2000-billion-rupee deficit. This is going to affect the man on the street via taxes, both direct and indirect and cause severe economic hardships to ordinary people. Combined with the depreciation of the rupee, prices of all consumer items will increase. This […]

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt burden had increased by over Rs 626 billion due to the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar between January 2015 and November 2017, Parliament was told yesterday. State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne revealed this in answer to a question posed by […]

By Umesh Moramudali Courtesy The Diplomat In the aftermath of political turmoil, Sri Lanka’s government will be hard-pressed to manage debt and growth in 2019. Following one of the most dramatic political crises in the recent history of South Asia, Sri Lanka’s government budget for 2019 was approved by the majority of the parliament on March 12. […]

By Prof. Tissa Vitarana Courtesy Ceylon Today The 2019 Budget comes as the last one of this Government. The people have experienced four years of an ‘open market economy’ and practically everyone in different walks of life complain that they feel dissatisfied, find it difficult to work and live the way they did before and […]

අද (20)පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වු හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතා  පසුගිය දින කිහිපය තුල රජය පුන පුන කිව්වේ ඒ අය ඩොලර් බිලියන 2.4ක් ලබා ගත්ත බවයි. එය විශාල ජයක් විදියටයි පෙන්වා දුන්නේ. එයින් වුනු ප්‍රතිවිපාකයි මම පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ.පළමුව ජාත්‍යන්තර ස්වෛරීය බැදුම්කර කියන්නේ මොකක්ද කියන දේ අපි පැහැදිලි කර ගන්න වෙනවා. සාමාන්‍ය […]

Courtesy Adaderana When inviting foreign investors, it is important to create an economic policy which can protect the local entrepreneur stated former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. If foreign investors are invited into the country they should generate some foreign exchange and employment opportunities for the country, he said. He further said that the investors also […]

By Dr.Dushni Weerakoon and Dr. Sisira Jayasuriya Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, March 16 (Channel Asia News): Global media and numerous experts” routinely assert that Sri Lanka was forced to cede a strategically important port to China after being lured into a debt trap by easy Chinese loans. This story has now become part of the wider narrative […]