By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island MP Gevindu Cumaratunga, who represents the SLPP dissidents, yesterday (27) alleged that the incumbent government was yet to bring enough pressure to bear on those who had parked as much as USD 36 billion overseas to bring the money back.Cumaratunga said the government’s failure to amend the Exchange Control […]

By Asiri Fernando The Sunday Morning Colombo, November 27 (The Sunday Morning): The Sri Lankan Government is planning to explore alternative funding means such as the announced $ 1 billion ‘Debt-for-Nature Swap’ (DNS) programme in late 2023, following the approval of the anticipated $ 2.9 billion Extended Fund Facility, The Sunday Morning learns. It is […]

The Hindu  Meera Srinivasan in Sri Lanka and Kanishkaa Balachandran in Bengaluru have put together a video report for The Hindu on the plight of the Malayaha Tamils or Hill Country Tamils who work on the tea plantations of Central Sri Lanka. As the poorest community in Sri Lanka, these workers of Indian origin have had to […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Both Cabinet and Parliament should question Central Bank officials about the recent decisions they have made with regards to the economy, Minister Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament yesterday. We will be able to question the decisions which Central Bank officials have made during the recent past if they are summoned to Parliament […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Committee on Public Accounts COPA revealed that the total arrears of taxes, penalties and interest in due to the Inland Revenue Department as at June 30th, 2022 is Rs. 773 billion. It was disclosed that an amount of Rs. 201 billion has been identified as income that can be collected without any […]

Courtesy Hiru News Earnings from merchandise exports have exceeded $11 bn from January to October 2022, indicating a growth of 9.33% in comparison to the same period in 2021: Export Development Board. This is a growth of 9.33% in comparison to the same period in 2021. The earnings from merchandise exports in the first ten […]

Ada Derana

Courtesy The Hindustan Times Sri Lanka’s inflation is expected to significantly cool in the coming months after peaking near 70% this year, and the nation may gradually relax a currency band as inflows improve, central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said. Sri Lanka’s Central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe expects that the country’s inflation will substantially decrease […]

By Shivanthi ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Last Friday (25 November 2022) at the event, Driving Towards a Resurgent Economy, organised by the Business Economics Studies Association of the University of Colombo, delivering a keynote speech Central Bank Governor, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe defended the high interest rates.  Currently, inflation is on the wrong side of two-digit numbers. […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekara Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal in his recently released publication on the current economic meltdown ‘Amidst Economic Hit Men’ says that if anyone is to blame for the current predicament, it is not only him but the previous administration, previous cabinet, finance minister and the […]

Courtesy Adaderana Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong today assured President Ranil Wickremesinghe that China would continue to extend its support to overcome the current challenges faced by Sri Lanka. They reviewed the progressive bilateral & multilateral negotiation on the debt issue of Sri Lanka and denounced misinformation by foreign media on #China.

Courtesy Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Sri Lankan dollar bonds advanced to a two-month high as the fiscal reforms announced in this month’s budget spurred hopes of securing an International Monetary Fund bailout. The 7.55% 2030 dollar bond was indicated up about 0.7 cents to 27.9 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, the highest since mid-September. The […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හිඟාකන රටක් බවට පත් කිරීමට තමන් කිසිලෙසක සූදානම් නොමැති බව ජනාධිපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පවසනවා. බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ පැවති දිවංගත අමාත්‍ය ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලි මහතාගේ 86 වැනි ජන්ම දින සැමරුම් උත්සවයට එක්වෙමින් ජනපතිවරයා මේ බව පැවසුවා. එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ රටේ මූල්‍ය ස්ථාවරය ඇති කිරීම සඳහා […]

Courtesy Financial Express President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the finance minister, had presented the budget on November 14 featuring tax reforms to raise government revenue Sri Lanka‘s Parliament on Tuesday approved the 2023 budget, with 121 lawmakers voting for and 84 opposing it in the 225-member House. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the […]

By Shirani Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today As forex became tight, leading to disruptions in the supply of essentials and other imports, people began to take to the streets. The queues became longer and so did the crescendo of the anti-government protests. In a bid to control the situation, the Gotabaya Administration did a sudden U-turn in […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka is in talks for a debt-for-nature” swap deal of up to USD 1 billion in climate-focused finance, a kind of agreement discussed at the United Nations COP27 summit in Egypt, Reuters reported citing people familiar with the matter. According to the news report, such agreements are part of efforts to address an intractable quandary […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් මුදල් අච්චු ගැසීමේ ආදීනව සම්බන්ධයෙන් දිගින් දිගටම අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කළ මහ බැංකු අධිපති නන්දලාල් වීරසිංහ මහතා මේ වන විට හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල් මහතාගේ මුදල් අච්චු ගැසීමේ වාර්තාව ද බිඳ දමා ඇතැයි පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පවසයි. ඒ මහතා මේ බව […]

Courtesy Adaderana A working team of the China Development Bank (CDB), an important supporter of Sri Lanka’s development, is currently on a visit to Sri Lanka. They have called on State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe and held discussions with the Finance Ministry with regard to the debt-related issues, according to diplomatic sources.

Courtesy Adaderana The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe stated that customers who have been inconvenienced due to the increase in the interest rates charged for the loans obtained under variable interest rates in the past are able to get relief by negotiating with the bank. The Governor stated […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Moscow initiated a banking cooperation between People’s Bank in Sri Lanka and National Investment Industrial Bank in Russia (NIIB) to devising a platform for Russian tourists to make payments in Sri Lanka seamlessly in Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) with effect from  November 22,  2022. According […]

Courtesy The News Colombo: Crisis-hit Sri Lanka said Monday it would take responsibility for $1.7 billion owed to China by state enterprises as it seeks to sell them off and restructure its foreign debt to secure an IMF bailout.The government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe is in talks with the Washington-based lender as it seeks funding […]

Courtesy Adaderana The government has unpaid bills of about Rs. 200 billion, mainly to the construction and various other institutions, says the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Mahinda Siriwardana. He stated that the government has come up with revenue and tax policies because the government is unable to pay those bills. The Treasury Secretary […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL ), Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says Sri Lanka was able to avoid a crash landing of its economy and turn it into a soft landing but on a lower point. If we have not taken those macroeconomic measures the situation would have been much […]

Official Online Media Partner – www.buzzer.lk The Olcott Oration is annually hosted by the Ananda College Old Boys’ Association in memory of the yeoman services rendered by our founders & in particular, the late Col. Henry Steel Olcott in nurturing & establishing the English Buddhist education in “CEYLON”. The Olcott Oration 2022 will be delivered […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Central Bank Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal who has been one of the individuals criticized for Sri Lanka’s worst-ever economic crisis, has released a new book titled “Among Economic Killers” which is priced at Rs.2500. The book is written in Sinhalese.  Cabraal was last week released on bail by Colombo Chief […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) says that the Sri Lankan economy, which faced extreme headwinds and heightened uncertainties during the first half of 2022, has shown signs of stability in the second half of the year so far. In a report titled Recent Economic Developments: Highlights of 2022 and Prospects for […]

Courtesy Adaderana The revenue of Rs. 16 billion that the government lost after the special commodity levy imposed on sugar was slashed by the previous administration in 2020, Acting Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says.  He made this remark in parliament today (Nov. 09), presenting a document compiled by the Commissioner-General of the Inland Revenue Department […]

Courtesy Hru News Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves were at USD 1.8 billion at the end of September including the China Central Bank exchange facility. The aggregate value of gross official reserves and foreign reserves of the banking sector is USD 6 billion.

Courtesy Hiru News Earnings from tourism for January -October 2022 surpass the USD1 billion mark with the USD 75.6 million earnings of October 2022.

Bloomberg Nov 1 (Bloomberg) – Sri Lanka’s inflation slowed in October for the first time in a year as shortages of food and fuel eased. The consumer price index in the capital Colombo cooled to 66% from a year ago, the statistics department said in a statement Monday. That’s down from 69.8% in September and a […]