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 […]

ධරණි රාජසිංහම් සේනානායක විසිනි කොවිඞ්-19 ලොව තවත් බොහෝ ප‍්‍රදේශ වල දේශපාලන වම සහ දකුණ අතර වෙනස්කම් නො පැහැදිලි තත්වයට පත් කර තිබේ. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් අයිතිවාසිකම් හා නිදහස ගැන උනන්දුවක් දක්වන සංවිධාන, සංගම් හා දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ- ඒවා කම්කරු, සුළුතර ජන කොටස්, කාන්තා සංවිධාන විය හැකිය- දැන් වඩ වඩාත් සංචරණ සීමාවන්, මිලිටරීකරණය කරන ලද සෞඛ්‍ය පද්ධතීන්, බලාත්කාරි එන්නත්කරණය […]

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 […]

by Garvin Karunaratne It is sad that even today when we have to live with power cuts, we yet do not realize the wind power that Mother Nature has provided for us. We have been toying with the sea breeze in Hambantota and Mannar, merely a plan by our Coal and Oil Lobby to prove that […]

ආචාර්ය සුදත්  ගුණසේකර. මහනුවර මුලු ලක්දිවම අරාජිකව ගිනිගෙන දැවෙද්දී ඝෝථාභය ඇමතිවරුන් සහ රාජ්ය ඇමතිවරුන් පත්කරයි” අද්යතන කියමනක් මුළු රටම අද ඉතිහාසයේ මින් පෙර කිසිම දිනක නොවූ පරිදි එදිනෙදාට අත්යාවශ්ය බඩු හිඟය, දැරිය නොහැකි බඩු මිල, දවසේ වැඩ අවසන්වි පැය ගනන් පෝලිම්වල සිට සවසට නිවසට ගේන හාල් ඇටය තම්බා ගැනීමට  මෙන්ම පවස නිවා ගැනීමට තේ කහට […]

Sugath Kulatunga It is an axiom that the three organs or pillars of any government are the executive, legislature, and the judiciary. For effective governance in a country all three organs must stand firm and support each other. In Sri Lanka the two organs of the executive and the legislature are in an existential crisis. […]

ප්‍ර සමරසිංහ (A song adapted from “මන්ද නාව කාරණාව” by නන්දා මාලිනි) මන්ද ‘නෑව’ කාරණාවයන්න උන්ගෙ වන්දනාවඋඹ හරි මෝඩයි ළමයෝමේ ටික අහපන් ළමයෝ..// හැත්තෑඑකේ ලණු කෑවා හැටදාහක් මරලාඅසුනවයේ ලණු ගිල්ලා ඊට වඩා මරලාතිස් අවුරුදු සාපෙ වැදී තව ගානක් මරලාදෙදාස්නවයේ තිත තිබ්බට මහමොලකරු කිපිලා..// මන්ද ‘නෑව’ කාරණාව.. බෙදා පාලනේ දැක දැක මහමොලකරුවන්නේ  පන්සිය වසරක් ලක්මව් හිටියා […]

Senaka Weeraratna Is the manner of calling for proper  investigation of the Bloody Easter Sunday Tragedy a true pursuit of Justice or an invidious attempt to side track the focus and instead indulge in blame games in step with the religio – political loyalties and leanings of the callers for ‘Justice’? Eight suicide bombers died […]

MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E A line has been crossed. That’s the title of a note doing the rounds referring to the ongoing protests and specifically to the fatal shooting of a protester in Rambukkana.   Yes, a line has been crossed. If anything marked the agitation until this point, barring of course the odd incident of mutual […]

වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන ජනාධිපති ධූරය අත් හැර ගියොත් ඉන්පසු ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවද? නැද්ද? ජනාධිපති ධූරය අත්හැරියාට පසු වෙනදේ සහ නොවෙනදේ බලා ඉන්න ආසයි… 1) තෙල්, ගෑස් පෝලින්….විදුලිය කප්පාදුව නතර වීම සහ බඩු මිල අඩුවීම.2) රටට ඩොලර් ගැලීම වේගවත් වීම.3) බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය හිමිවීම සහ බුද්ධ ශාසන අමාත්‍යාංශය රාජ්‍යයේ ප්‍රධානියා විසින් […]

Rudra de Zoysa. MNZM. Dear Sri Lankans and friends of Sri Lanka, As you are aware Sri Lanka is currently going through the worst economic crisis since our Independence. For our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka this situation has transformed itself into an endless sequence of hardship – lack of basic food essentials, vital […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් මේ මොහොතේ කළ යුත්තේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ද ඉවත්කර රට තවදුරටත් අස්ථාවර කිරීම නොවන බවත් ඔහු රටට අභිවෘද්ධිය සලසන වැඩපිළිවෙළකට සහ රට පිළිබඳ සාමූහික තීන්දු ගන්නා සියලු පක්ෂවලින් සැදුම්ලත් ජාතික සභාවකට එකඟ කරවාගෙන අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු පවතින ආණ්ඩුව පූර්ණ ලෙස ඉවත් කර අන්තර්කාලීන ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීම බවත් ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, April 23 (Counterpoint): Sri Lanka is negotiating with the IMF for help to overcome the present forex crisis. But the IMF’s prescriptions could be challenging. It has already made it clear that Sri Lanka has to set its house in order before aid can flow even in the form of […]

නයන තරංග ගමගේ අරුණ රටේ උද්ගතව ඇති ආර්ථික අර්බුදයට වගකිව යුත්තේ හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් බවට එල්ලවන චෝදනාවකි. ඔහු මහ බැංකු අධිපති ධුරයට පත් වූයේ මුදල් රාජ්‍ය ඇමැති ධුරයද අත්හරිමිනි. දැන් ඔහුට අල්ලපු අත්තත් නැත, පය ගහපු අත්තත් නැත. මේ ඒ ගැන ඔහු කියන කතාවය. කොහොමද ඔබට දැන් සැපද? මට දැන් ආතතියක් […]

Deena Kamel Courtesy The National News Discussions emphasised the need for implementing a ‘credible and coherent’ strategy to restore macroeconomic stability. The International Monetary Fund said it had fruitful technical discussions” with Sri Lanka on its request for a loan programme, as the island nation grapples with a severe economic crisis that has sparked protests […]

Courtesy Business Standard This comes as India’s southern neighbour deals with its worst-ever economic crisis. Sri Lanka could be given temporary classification as a lower-income country — from the current middle-income status — to help it restructure its debt. And, it should also be given emergency funding similar to the one granted to Ukraine. These […]

Charu Lata Hogg Courtesy Guardian (UK) Severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine appear to have unified Sri Lankans against the ruling Rajapaksa family Sun 24 Apr 2022 15.07 BST Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented political and economic emergency, a result of government mismanagement and the effect of global crises. But the tiny island […]

Priyanka Sharma Courtesy LiveMint Sri Lanka is seeking emergency aid to secure lifesaving drugs amid its worst economic crisis. The island nation, which imports 85% of its medicine requirements, has run out of dollars to pay for imports, putting its healthcare system on the brink of collapse NEW DELHI : Sri Lanka has reached out to […]

By Vineetha m. Gamage Courtesy Ceylon Today Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader Udaya Gammanpila said, the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Government will be presented to Parliament this week by the 11 constituent parties and the 42 independent MPs. He was confident that 125 MPs had already pledged their support to the NCM. As a […]

Courtesy Hiru News IMF team for Sri Lanka completes initial technical discussions on an IMF-supported program and have issued a statement. The Statement:Washington, DC: During the 2022 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other senior members of IMF management met with a Sri Lankan delegation, led […]

Courtesy Adaderana SLPP parliamentarian Prof. Charitha Herath says that he endorses former minister Dullas Alahapperuma’s suggestion calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet as well as the forming of a national government.  The former Media Minister on Friday had written a letter to the President stating that the prime minister and […]

Courtesy Adaderana (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it held fruitful technical discussions” with Sri Lanka on its loan request, while the World Bank said it was preparing an emergency aid package for the crisis-stricken country. Sri Lanka, an island country of 22 million people, is struggling to pay for imports amid […]

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 […]