Courtesy The Daily Mirror The country’s economy started to collapse with wrong policy decisions, Industries Minister Ramesh Pathirana said addressing the panel discussion of the Sri Lanka Ceramics and Glass Council yesterday. The discussion was on the quality, affordability and self-reliance of the sanitaryware industry.We are a people who maintain a lifestyle that we cannot […]

By Deborah Brautigam and Meg Rithmire Courtesy The Atlantic.com China, we are told, inveigles poorer countries into taking out loan after loan to build expensive infrastructure that they can’t afford and that will yield few benefits, all with the end goal of Beijing eventually taking control of these assets from its struggling borrowers. As states around the world […]

Courtesy Hiru News Ceylon Electricity Board and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation are expected to be restructured after obtaining approval for the final report on submission to the President and the Cabinet according to Minister Kanchana Wijesekera

By Luxman Siriwardena and Chanuka Wattegama Courtesy The Sunday Times (LK) Published on 17th April 2011 The main opposition party has recently demanded a devaluation of the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) to ‘increase exports’ and ‘boost the economy’. This process, claims our ‘government-in-waiting’, is the assured remedy to increase the share of exports in the […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Paris Club creditor nations last month reached out to China and India seeking to coordinate closely on Sri Lanka’s debt talks, but is still awaiting a reply, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Paris Club officials reached out to two of Sri Lanka’s biggest […]

Courtesy Adaderana The draft Amendment Bill to revise the Inland Revenue Act was published in the government gazette on Tuesday (Oct. 11), proposing key changes to the income tax. The gazette notification was issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies to amend the Inland Revenue Act, […]

Courtesy Adaderana The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that colliding pressures from inflation, war-driven energy and food crises and sharply higher interest rates were pushing the world to the brink of recession and threatening financial market stability. In gloomy reports issued at the start of the first in-person International Monetary Fund and World Bank […]

Meera Srinivasan Courtesy The Hindu World Bank flags need for higher social security in the island   As Sri Lankans continue braving their worst economic crisis since Independence, urban poverty on the island has tripled in the last year, from 5% to 15 %, according to a recent World Bank report.     Sri Lanka is experiencing its […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Contradicting Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardane, President’s Media Division (PMD) said Sri Lanka will remain a middle-income country. The PMD said in a statment that the government is pursuing a “reverse graduation” policy for a limited period of time. Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardane told the weekly Cabinet briefing this morning that the […]

Courtesy WION The Sri Lankan cabinet has approved a proposal to downgrade the country’s status from a middle-income country to a low-income country. The cabinet spokesperson says Sri Lankan GDP is expected to decline further and that this step was being taken to unlock more financial support from international institutions.

Courtesy Adaderana The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval for the proposal to downgrade Sri Lanka’s status from a ‘middle-income country’ to a ‘low-income country’, the Cabinet Spokesman says. Joining the Cabinet press meeting held today, Minister Bandula Gunawardene stated that Sri Lanka was declared a middle-income country in accordance with international classification, adding that […]

Courtesy Adaderana The United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP) joined on Tuesday the chorus of institutions and charities warning that a serious debt crisis is now taking hold in the poorest parts of the world. In a new report, the UNDP estimated that 54 countries, accounting for more than half of the world’s poorest people, now needed […]

Courtesy Adaderana World Bank President David Malpass and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on Monday of a growing risk of global recession and said inflation remained a continuing problem after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There’s a risk and real danger of a world recession next year,” Malpass said in a dialogue with […]

By Joe Rennison and Isabella Simonetti Courtesy Khaleej Times  Low-income countries, like Ghana and Pakistan, were already struggling during the pandemic. The dollar’s strength is adding to their woes The average household in Ghana is paying two-thirds more than it did last year for diesel, flour and other necessities. In Egypt, wheat is so expensive […]

නිලන්ත සත්සර ගමගේ 2020 රාජ්‍ය බදු ආදායම – 1,216,542 ( රු.මි ) ආදායම් බදු – 268,249 එකතු කල අගය මත බදු 233,786 නිෂ්පාදන / සුරා බදු – 321,932 ආනයන මත බදු 114,183 අනෙකුත් බදු 278,392   2021 රාජ්‍ය බදු ආදායම – 1,298,019 ( රු.මි) ආදායම් බදු – 302,115 එකතු කල අගය මත බදු 308,213 නිෂ්පාදන […]

Courtesy Adaderana President of the European Commission, Ms. Ursula von der Leyen congratulating Ranil Wickremesinghe on his election as the President of the Democratic of Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has assured its support to the government of Sri Lanka for the efforts to overcome the crisis successfully. Issuing a statement, Ms. Ursula noted that […]

Courtesy Adaderana State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe says the government’s initiative to revive the economy of the country was appreciated by the World Bank during a special discussion held with Mr. Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The WB Country Director stated that the government is demonstrating […]

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana Headline inflation of Sri Lanka, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index has increased to 69.8% in September 2022 from 64.3% in August 2022. According to the Department of Census and Statistics, this increase in Y-o-Y inflation was driven by the monthly increases of both Food and […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Colombo, September 28: Reporting on the meeting between the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, last Friday on the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly session in New York, the Chinese embassy in Colombo said that the two sides had agreed to speed up the negotiation […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, September 28 (Counterpoint):  Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Tokyo on Tuesday, that Sri Lanka would give priority to reviving the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) of 2018. The SLSFTA, which was signed when Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister, became operational on May […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror August merchandise exports income tops US$ 1.2bn Apparel & textile exports up 15% to US$ 565mn Jan-Aug. cumulative exports up 12% to US$ 8.85bn Cumulative apparel & textile up 19% to US$ 4.08bn Sri Lanka recorded its highest merchandise export income so far for this year in the month of August […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Although Sri Lanka tourism had to face some unprecedented challenges over the past couple of years, the industry is now back on track for recovery, said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).  Giving a positive message on World Tourism Day, the state agency highlighted that over the past couple of months, […]

Courtesy CNA MANILA/TOKYO: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ready to provide further financial support to Sri Lanka, a top official of the regional lender said on Tuesday (Sep 27), as the Indian Ocean nation battles its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. The remarks came after an ADB pact this month for […]

Courtesy orinoco tribune The IMF released a report today on the Bolivian economy in which it recommends adopting drastic neoliberal measures, including; reducing workers’ salaries, cutting public investments, and ending currency controls. These policies have turned Bolivia from one of the poorest countries in the region into it’s fastest-growing economy. The report takes aim at […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe says that discussion on restructuring Sri Lanka’s bilateral debt has already commenced with India and China at a lower level and that he is visiting Japan to discuss their role it the process. He stated that talks with China would go to a higher level probably after the National Congress […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry on the sidelines of the general debate of the UNGA 77 in New York on September 23.  Wang Yi said that China and Sri Lanka established the relations of strategic partnership of cooperation, […]

By Raj Moorthy Courtesy The Sunday times Audience. There are many debates these days as to why Sri Lanka must or must not reach out to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance in overcoming the current debilitating economic crisis. Looking at four things about today’s economic situation that is historically unprecedented for Sri Lanka […]

Courtesy Business Standard Amid the worst-ever economic crisis since the country gained independence in 1948, Sri Lanka’s inflation rate jumped to 70.2 per cent in August, official data revealed on Thursday.

by Arundathie Abeysinghe Courtesy AsiaNews Discussions are underway between central banks to allow Russian credit cards to operate in Sri Lanka. Last year almost 17,000 Russian tourists visited the island. The country is in economic recovery and also hopes to obtain a loan to buy fuel. Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lankan authorities are considering joining […]