Shenali D Waduge Every time Sri Lanka mentions the words Sinhalese, Buddhists or Buddhism the whole world appears to get agitated & they take pains to showcase why there should be no reference to Sinhala Buddhists or the Buddhist ethos that governs this island nation. In short, there is a well-funded & well-campaigned effort to […]

Sad Sri Lankan How did the Yahapalanaya booby trap the Rajapaksa Govt so that the R Bros would be trapped for Yahapalanaya’s sins?   In 2014 the external debt was $42,262,755,067. By 2019 during the time the Yahapalanaya was in power, the external debt had gone up to $56,095,468,647, How did this happen?  * The Yahapalanaya Govt introduced […]

Shenali D Waduge There are many who claim that the only solution to Sri Lanka’s economic problem is to privatize public assets. These are promoted by western monetary bodies & local corporates take advantage of the corruptions that exist in the bureaucracy. In essence, what needs to be accepted is that it is not only […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ රත්තරං 2019 නොවැම්බර් වලදී රටේ ශුද්ධ ඩොලර් සංචිතය බිලියන 7 ඉක්මවා තිබුණි, සැලකිය යුතු තරම් විශාල රත්තරං සංචිතයක්ද විය. අද මේවා පිලිවෙලින් ඩොලර් මිලියන 100 සහ ඉතාම අඩු රත්තරං සංචිතයක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. දැන් ඉන්දියාවෙන් සහ චීනයෙන් දෙන ණය සහ ආධාර මත යැපෙමින් එදිනෙදා වේල පිරිමසා ගන්නා තත්වයකට අප පත්ව සිටිමු. තත්ත්වය මෙසේ […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, April 25: Fed up with the lack of progress in talks with Sri Lanka on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) since 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on April 22, that while China has empathy for Sri Lanka’s economic plight and is keen on […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Sri Lanka’s ongoing negotiations with the IMF will unavoidably impact its discussions with China for securing US $ 2.5 billion, China’s Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said.  In an interactive dialogue with a team of journalists, he said China was closely monitoring the negotiations to know the terms and conditions . He said debt […]

Courtesy https://borneobulletin.com April 26, 2022 COLOMBO (AFP) – Crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s stock exchange halted again yesterday after a nearly 13 per cent plunge, derailing the bourse’s tentative re-opening after a two-week break aimed at forestalling a market collapse. The island nation is grappling with its worst economic downturn since independence in 1948, with months of […]

By Haridass Sankar* Courtesy EurasiaReview Sri Lanka is undergoing a severe economic crisis and is at the risk of devolving into a failed state. The country’s foreign reserves are fast depleting, falling from $5 billion in 2019 to 1.8 billion in 2021, despite high inflation and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 110 per cent. From health to defence, […]

Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s cabinet approved a plan to abolish constitutional amendments that gave President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wide-ranging executive powers, acceding to one of the key demands from citizens protesting his economic policies as the ruling family tries to stay in office. A proposal by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa — the president’s brother — […]

Courtesy Adaderana The financial departments and institutes of China and Sri Lanka are still working closely on the new financial requests raised by Sri Lanka, in the backdrop of the island nation’s temporary suspension of debt payment and the talks of debt restructuring with IMF, says the Chinese Ambassador to Colombo. Ambassador Qi Zhenhong stated […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to introduce the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, based on the positive features of the 19th and 20th amendments.  Meanwhile a sub-committee has been appointed to carry out further action with regard to the proposed 21st constitutional amendment.    Earlier today, the committee report on […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has replied to the letter sent by the Chief Prelates of the Three Buddhist Chapters dated on 20.04.2022 addressing the President, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all party leaders in Parliament regarding the current situation in the country. The President’s Media Division has released excerpts of […]

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake In Cherry Blossom lined Washington DC in the glare of global media last week Sri Lanka became the poster child of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), Spring Meetings. The strategic Indian Ocean island’s pathetic plight featured on major media and television channels that craft the global narrative, with images of people in queues […]