Courtesy Adaderana The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Ajith Nivard Cabraal has denied reports that he has been summoned by the Cabinet of Ministers for its meeting today. In a twitter message, the governor said the news reports claiming that he has been summoned by the Cabinet to discuss matters related […]

Courtesy Adaderana The meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers scheduled to be held tomorrow (13) will reportedly focus more attention on the foreign exchange reserves crisis the country is currently facing. Secretary to the Finance Ministry Mr. S.R. Attygalle and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Mr Ajith Nivard Cabraal will also […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Sri Lanka will stabilize its foreign reserves on its own and will not seek any assistance from anyone, Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa  told Parliament today. Winding up the committee stage debate of the budget in the House, Minister Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka will not seek IMF assistance if its conditions […]

Courtesy Adaderana Several prominent members of the board of directors of the Board of Investment (BOI) have stepped down from their positions. According to a statement issued by the BOI, the Chairman, members of the Board of Directors and the Director-General are among the top officials who resigned.  The full statement of the Board of […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Sri Lanka is confident of being able to “seamlessly” repay all of its sovereign debt that comes due in 2022, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said on Wednesday, while exploring new instruments to make its debt profile more sustainable. “The repayments (for 2022) will go through seamlessly, we are confident […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Sri Lanka has not made any request for financial support. IMF’S Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Masahiro Nozaki told Daily Mirror in an email that a staff team from the IMF is scheduled to visit Colombo from December 7–20. Responding to a question posed on […]

By Hussain Shazzad* Courtesy Eurasia Review Bangladesh, the second highest recipient of China’s investment in South Asia after Pakistan, imports the highest volume of goods from China making it Bangladesh’s largest trading partner. This is the beginning of the story where China offers Bangladesh financial assistance and development experience for its ‘big-ticket megaprojects’ to fulfill its vision-2041, […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Following the success of last year’s #BudgetCheck, FactCheck.lk by Verité Research carried out live fact checking on claims made by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa in his 2022 Budget Speech on November 12, 2021.  The team fact checked a total of nine statements from the Budget Speech. Of these, four statements were […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Samagi Jana Balavegaya stated in Parliament today that the reason for the current financial crisis in the country is the loss of Rs. 800 billion in revenue due to tax concessions given in the last budget. Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella made this statement while State Minister Shehan Semasinghe, Parliamentarian Ranil […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal stated that he hopes to restructure loans in a manner that is beneficial to the country. He was addressing a discussion on the budget organized by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka held through video technology. Some of the proposals made by the […]

Courtesy Channel News Asia COLOMBO :The Sri Lankan government will reduce the budget deficit to around 8.8per cent of gross domestic product in 2022, finance minister Basil Rajapaksa said in his budget speech on Friday, though it missed its deficit target for 2021. The government will also roll out a goods and services tax announced […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Ministry of Finance has published the full budget speech delivered by the Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa at Parliament today (12). Basil Rajapaksa delivered his maiden budget speech as the Minister of Finance today. It is the 76th Budget of the independent Sri Lanka and the second budget of the government of President […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

Courtesy Hiru News The amendment to the Appropriation Act No. 07 of 2020 to increase the borrowing limit was recently approved by the Committee on Public Finance chaired by Member of Parliament Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. Accordingly, the borrowing limit which was Rs. 2997 billion will be increased to Rs. 3397 billion, it was revealed at […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror In order to make the public aware of the forthcoming budget the Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) recently launched a budget forecast campaign titled ‘Who is the budget for? There’s a huge budget deficit and people are facing many challenges with the rising cost of living, scarcity of goods, loss of income […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගමන් කරමින් ඇත්තේ බංකොලොත් රාජ්‍යයක් වෙත බව වෙළෙඳ අමාත්‍ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා සඳහන් කරයි. 2029 වසර අනතුරු කිසිවෙකුට ඔළුව උස්සන්න හැකියාවක් නැති බවත් ඔහු පවසයි. දෙරණ නාලිකව සමඟ පැවති සාකච්ඡාවකදී එහි මාධ්‍යවේදියා සහ අමාත්‍යවරයා අතර සිදු වූ සංවාදය මෙසේය. මාධ්‍යවේදියා – මූඩිස් ආයතනයේ ණය ශ්‍රේණිගත කිරීම්වලට අනුව CAA1 […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Government of Sri Lanka and the World Bank signed a $500 million financing agreement to provide safe, efficient and climate resilient connectivity to strengthen agricultural supply chains through the Inclusive Connectivity and Development Project. This project is expected to benefit around 16 million people living in rural communities in selected districts of […]

Courtesy Adaderana Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s”) has today downgraded the Government of Sri Lanka’s long-term foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Caa2 from Caa1 under review for downgrade. The outlook is stable.  This concludes the review for downgrade initiated on 19 July 2021. The decision to downgrade the ratings is […]

MUNZA MUSHTAQ, Contributing Writer Courtesy Nikkei Asia Central Bank has been printing money as tax take falls and prices soar COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s COVID-stricken economy is being likened to a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment as foreign reserves plummet, the cost of living rises and the central bank carries […]

Courtesy Adaderana A special meeting between the Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong and the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa took place on Friday (October 22) at Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Colombo. During the discussion, the Opposition Leader has emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation between the two countries and […]

By Marina Leiva Courtesy Investment Monitor Sri Lanka attracted record levels of FDI in 2019, but was then hit by terrorist attacks and the pandemic. Will a foreign investment-friendly government get the country back on track? Tea continues to play a significant role in Sri Lanka’s exports, as the country looks to attract more FDI to […]

Author: Dushni Weerakoon, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka Courtesy East Asia Forum Sri Lanka recently passed emergency regulations to deal with food shortages and price increases. Such powers are typically invoked to address public security concerns. But in this instance, they are being used to give the government extra powers to seize stocks of essential […]

The Economic Times The beleaguered Sri Lankan economy faces substantial credit risk, with default ‘a real possibility’, Singapore-based Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday. The ratings agency also revised Sri Lanka’s growth forecast for 2021 to 3.3 % from 3.8 %, due to the surge in coronavirus cases in July-August. “Sri Lanka’s public and external finances […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Oct 17 (newsin.asia) – In the 2021 Global Hunger Index, Sri Lanka ranks 65th out of the 116 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2021 GHI scores. With a score of 16.0, Sri Lanka has a level of hunger that is moderate. For the 2021 GHI report, data were assessed for 135 countries. Out of these, there […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka has sought a USD 500 million credit line from India to pay for its crude oil purchases amid a severe foreign exchange crisis in the island nation, Indian media reported today. The move came few days after energy minister Udaya Gammanpila warned that the current availability of fuel in the island […]

Courtesy Channel News Asia COLOMBO : Sri Lanka’s central bank said on Monday it will halt plans to buy back US$1.5 billion of its international sovereign bonds due for redemption next year because of a lack of interest from bond holders to sell at discounted prices. This month, the central bank announced it would look […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Oct 10 (News 1st) – The Government of Sri Lanka recently lifted the control prices of several essential items in bid to put an end to people lining up for hours to purchase goods. These items are Wheat Flour, Milk Powder, Cement and LP Gas. On Friday (8), the Government also took […]

Courtesy Finance in Bold Sri Lanka’s cabinet has issued a go-ahead to form a committee that will oversee a possible venture into digital banking, blockchain, and crypto mining solutions. A press release from the Department of Government Information notes that the new focus on digital solutions is part of attracting foreign investment in the fields highlighted. The […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Sri Lanka’s economy is projected to grow by 3.3 percent in 2021, but the medium-term outlook is clouded by pre-existing macroeconomic weaknesses and the economic scarring from the COVID-19 pandemic. A gradual recovery will likely lead to corresponding improvements in labor market conditions. Most countries in South Asia are far from pre-pandemic trend […]

Courtesy Adaderana Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director-General for South Asia Department Kenichi Yokoyama has assured President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that the bank will support the promotion of Small- and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka. The ADB provided a USD 750 million concessional loan last year for projects in the country. Mr. Yokoyama said that the […]