Courtesy The Island Lanka can be on path to recovery by 2024: IMF official The International Monetary Fund Director Asia and Pacific Department Krishna Srinivasan on Thursday said if Sri Lanka comes through with all the reforms, fast-track the proper implementation and warp-up the debt restructuring by September, the economy will be on a path […]

MICHAEL HUDSON  Courtesy The Unz Review As dollar system declines, what comes next? RADHIKA DESAI: Hi everyone, welcome to this eighth Geopolitical Economy Hour, the fortnightly show on the political and geopolitical economy of our times. I’m Radhika Desai. MICHAEL HUDSON: And I’m Michael Hudson. RADHIKA DESAI: And this will be the fourth and final […]

Courtesy Outlook India Analysts said that the $2.69 billion, includes a 1.4 billion US dollar currency swap from China with conditions attached to its usage. Debt-ridden Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves improved to $2.69 billion in March 2023 from a mere $50 million in May last year, giving indications of marginal improvement of the island […]

By Sriyani Hulugalle, fomer senior economist at the World Bank Most economists view the current economic crisis through a political lens. However, this crisis was inevitable and predicted for a long time. Some of the international financial institutions too tend to take a short term view. Probably, the root cause lies with Sri Lanka moving […]

Courtesy Adaderana In a bid to revive the country’s struggling economy, Sri Lanka has implemented a comprehensive economic reforms agenda, the President’s Media Division (PMD) reported. Accordingly, the government has initiated several key recovery strategies, with the establishment of a National Productivity Commission being a flagship project. Despite on-going economic constraints, the government allocated funds […]

Courtesy Mizzima Cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s inflation eased to 35.3 percent, the lowest in a year, the statistics office said Friday as the country pressed ahead with austerity measures under an IMF bailout. Fuel and food prices coming off their record highs helped inflation moderate in April, the Department of Census and Statistics said. April is […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Sri Lanka Country Engagement Plan was launched on Friday (April 28) as a joint initiative of the Inland Revenue Department, the Fiscal Policy Department, the Finance Ministry and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Sri Lanka. The engagement plan aims to better align taxation policies with the achievement of the Sustainable […]

Courtesy BNN Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s inflation eased in April amid a higher borrowing rate and a stronger local currency that helped reduce import costs.  Consumer price index in Colombo rose 35.3% from a year ago, the Statistics Department said in a statement Friday. That compares with a 50.3% rise in March based on […]

Courtesy CNA NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to shrink by 2 per cent in 2023, its central bank said in an annual report on Thursday (Apr 27), as the country struggled to emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades. The central bank projected Sri Lanka’s economy would grow by 3.3 per cent […]

By Dr. Imran Khalid Courtesy Ceylon Today The Chinese economy is off to a roaring start this year, clocking in a 4.5 per cent year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter – A figure that has surpassed even the most-optimistic projections. With this sturdy start in the first quarter, China is poised for a full-year […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් ප්‍රවාහන, මහාමාර්ග හා ජනමාධ්‍ය ඇමැති, ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවසුවේ මෙරට සියලු දේශපාලන නායකයන්ට ආර්ථික ලණු දුන්නේ මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්ව සිටි පී.බී. ජයසුන්දර මහතා බවය. ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලේ ගිවිසුම පිළිබඳ පාර්ලිමේන්තු විවාදයට ඇමැතිවරයා පැවසුවේ මෙම අර්බුදය සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවත් ප්‍රධාන වගඋත්තරකරුවකු බවයි. අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතු ප්‍රධාන කරුණු වෙනුවට එදිනෙදා […]

Courtesy Adaderana The last time emerging markets faced a major debt crisis, in the 1990s, influential creditors, named after traditional centres of diplomacy and finance, could quickly gather in private to agree a solution. These days, bringing together a more diverse group of lenders has proved a more cumbersome exercise. The Paris Club’s members are […]

Courtesy Hiru News Foreign media cited sources familiar with the Paris Club, to say that the group has informed the International Monetary Fund of their willingness to support Sri Lanka’s debt re-structuring. As it stands, only India has confirmed its participation in the restructuring process, with the IMF accepting a letter in this regard. Meanwhile, […]

Courtesy Adaderana World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia has commended the progress on fiscal, financial and economic governance reforms achieved by Sri Lanka thus far. On the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Washington DC, the Sri Lankan delegation led by Finance […]

Courtesy Adaderana China has reiterated the calls on commercial and multilateral creditors to jointly participate in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring under the principle of fair burden-sharing. According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, the Asian economic giant has been in close communication with Sri Lanka and supported Chinese financial institutions in actively discussing debt […]

By Aldgra Fredly Courtesy Epoch Times It remains uncertain whether China, Sri Lanka’s biggest bilateral creditor, will join the initiative launched by Japan. Japan, India, and France on April 13 unveiled a plan to initiate a negotiation process with Sri Lanka’s creditors to coordinate the restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt as the country seeks to resolve […]

Courtesy Financial Express She emphasised that a collaboration among creditors is important to ensure transparency and equality in treatment of all creditors in the debt restructuring discussions. The high-level meeting took place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- World Bank (WB) Spring Meetings here on Thursday. (Photo source: Twitter/@FinMinIndia) Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Leading economist Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, who is also chair of LIRNEasia, spells out the way forward for the country in the aftermath of the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Excerpts of the interview: Q   Sri Lanka celebrates the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But, there is a long way […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island During his address to the Economic Dialogue – IMF and Beyond”, the President declared that Sri Lanka is at a crossroad and it was the nation’s last chance to forge ahead or fail (Daily FT, 31, 2023). Now that Sri Lanka has committed itself to the terms and conditions […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) has further appreciated against the US Dollar (USD) today, according to the Central Bank. Accordingly, today’s buying rate of USD is Rs. 311.63 while the selling rate is Rs. 327.72.

Courtesy Hiru News Former Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said that foreign creditors would want to get the debt restructuring exercise over with as quickly as possible. He noted that it wouldn’t be in the interests of foreign creditors to put the local banking sector into crisis. He added that macroeconomic indicators had improved […]

Ada Derana English

Anusha Ondaatjie, Courtesy  Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves grew in March to the highest in over a year after the South Asian nation clinched a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. The stockpile increased to $2.69 billion from $2.22 billion in February, according to data released by the central bank on […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lankan migrant workers’ foreign remittances have seen a sharp increase in March 2023, according to the figures published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). Thereby, workers’ remittances amounted to USD 568.3 million last month, recording an increase of more than USD 161 million from February 2023. Sri Lanka consecutively registered […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has issued a statement, clarifying a misreporting of the views recently expressed by the CBSL Governor, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe during a recent media engagement. The media reports in question, which claim that the Governor anticipates a difficult period ahead in the economy, were deemed a ‘gross […]

Courtesy Peoples Gazette According to the World Bank, the economy will continue to face significant challenges in 2023 and beyond. The World Bank on Tuesday announced that Sri Lankan economy is projected to contract by 4.3 per cent in 2023 as demand continues to be subdued, job and income losses intensify. The World Bank in its twice-a-year […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s economy is projected to contract further in 2023 before it begins a gradual recovery in 2024, as the country navigates an unprecedented economic crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in its annual flagship economic publication, the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) April 2023. The economy contracted by 7.8% in 2022 and is […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s heightened fiscal, external, and financial sector imbalances and its fluid political situation pose significant uncertainty for the country’s economic outlook, says the World Bank in its twice-a-year update, underscoring the need to address the root causes of the country’s economic crisis and build a strong and resilient economy to prevent future […]

By P. K. Balachandran courtesy Eurasia Review In 1966, the Indian economist Dr. B.R. Shenoy suggested measures that would have prevented Sri Lanka’s precipitous economic slide in succeeding years.     Giving the keynote address at a symposium on Economic Dialogue – IMF and Beyond” here on March 30, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri […]

Courtesy Hiru News Sri Lanka yesterday held an investor presentation in order to explain the current macroeconomic situation and outlined the key pillars and objectives of the IMF program as well as the next steps with regard to the engagement with creditors. Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe told the […]