Pathfinder Foundation Now that the parliamentary elections are concluded, the focus of the new government should shift to the serious business of fixing the economy. COVID-19 has hit Sri Lanka’s economic outlook harder than expected. A gloomy prognosis suggests a scenario of negative economic growth, high unemployment and rising foreign debt in 2020 and 2021. […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror I think what is most important is proper debt management. If we get that right, we don’t need to think of debt restructuring The Daily Mirror discussed the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the national economy and how Sri Lanka could emerge from this unprecedented challenge with the least […]

Courtesy DNA The development comes as a relief to Sri Lanka amidst COVID-19 and will help in its post-pandemic economic recovery. A currency swap is a transaction in which two parties exchange principal and interest in different currencies. India and Sri Lanka on Friday agreed for US $400 million currency swap agreement. The agreement signed […]

The Prince of Kandy I am not saying it is a life and death matter when you print money. During my period it isn’t that we didn’t have excess printing but every time the treasury secretary asked me if we could accommodate the government with an excess of treasury bills I always got a date […]

Prof. Chandana Jayalath, University of Vocational Technology Finishing the unfinished effort of Millennium Development Goals is of national significance. Effectively, the MDGs are global benchmarks. Concurrent with that effort, it is important to have a focus on what Sri Lanka’s development agenda should look like beyond 2020. While completing the ‘unfinished business’, I believe, this […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has briefed the cabinet on Wednesday on the success of the economic fundamentals adopted to face the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and said Sri Lanka’s exports revenue had overtaken the imports revenue for the first time since the open economy was introduced in 1977, Cabinet spokesman […]

By Professor Richard Wolff Professor of Economics Richard Wolff explains the dire direction our economy is headed towards as unemployment continues to skyrocket.

Courtesy DNA The matter was raised at the leadership level during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s telephonic conversation with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on May 23. Indian and Sri Lankan authorities held talks over two days this week on rescheduling Colombo’s repayment of loans and the country’s $1.1 billion currency swap request to abate the […]

Courtesy Adaderana Having identified the urgent need of reviving the businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and thereby to promote economic activity in the country, the Central Bank and the Government of Sri Lanka launched a novel refinance facility under the Saubagya (Prosperity) Loan Scheme, as announced today (24). The Central Bank has approved […]

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Sri Lanka should open up to Bangladeshi investments to reciprocate the welcome accorded to Sri Lankan investments in Bangladesh says Bangladesh envoy Riaz Hamidullah Colombo, June 16: The lockdowns and barriers imposed in countries across the globe following the outbreak of COVID-19 have crippled economies. But COVID or no COVID, […]

Courtesy Hiru News Government intends to raise a Foreign Currency Term Financing Facility up to a limit of USD 500 million in 2020, to finance the budget according to the Finance Ministry. The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) intends to raise a Foreign Currency Term Financing Facility (FTFF) denominated in United State Dollars (USD) up […]

Courtesy Adaderana Growth of the Sri Lankan economy has fallen to dismal levels over the past few years, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may result in severe stress on economic and financial system stability in the period ahead unless immediate remedial actions are taken. In this context, in support of the government’s efforts […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), at its meeting held today (16), decided to reduce the Statutory Reserve Ratio (SRR) applicable on all rupee deposit liabilities of licensed commercial banks (LCBs) by 200 basis points to 2.00 per cent, with effect from the reserve maintenance period that commenced […]

Courtesy Hiru News – Growth of the Sri Lankan economy has fallen to dismal levels over the past few years, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may result in severe stress on economic and financial system stability in the period ahead unless immediate remedial actions are taken. In this context, in support of the […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) should take the responsibility for the downfall of a financial entity under its purview, says Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. He made this remark during a meeting held at the Temple Trees to discuss the current status of The Finance Company PLC. The meeting was attended by […]

සාකච්ඡා කළේ චමින්ද මුණසිංහ උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප කොරෝනා වසංගතයත් සමඟ ලෝක ආර්ථිකය මෙන්ම ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකයත් බරපතළ අර්බුදවලට මුහුණ දෙමින් තිබේ. මෙවන් ප්‍රශ්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබ පුවත්පත සමග මා කතා කර තිබෙන්නේ 2002 වසරේ පටන්ය. දැවෙන ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්න නමින් තීරු ලිපියකින්ද අපි නොයෙක් විග්‍රහ කළෙමු. අඛණ්ඩව වසර  18 ක් මෙවන් විග්‍රහ හරහා ආර්ථිකයට නිවැරැදි මඟ පෙන්වීමට උත්සාහ කළෙමු. […]

Embassy of Sri Lanka  Washington D.C. The Government of Sri Lanka has introduced a new bank account termed ‘Special Deposit Account (SDA)’ for all Sri Lankans living in and outside the country to remit their foreign currency earnings, savings and investments to any bank of their preference in Sri Lanka. It is in the form […]

Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror The government has worked out a roadmap for reopening the Bandaranaike International Airport for inbound and outbound passengers with guidelines that include the setting up of a laboratory to test them for COVID-19, Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said today. He made these remarks regarding the inauguration of a […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Orders formulation of detailed plans for every sector including tourism. Colombo, May 7 (newsin.asia): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is optimistic that the economy adversely affected by the COVID – 19 pandemic, could be re-built on a solid basis, a Presidential press statement said on Thursday. The Presidential Task Force in charge of […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Gotabaya Rajapaksa states that he is optimistic that the economy adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic could be re-built on a solid basis. The Presidential Task Force in charge of the Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication has been entrusted with the responsibility of formulating a new economic model to achieve this objective. President […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Chinese government has re-affirmed its support to the Sri Lankan government to revive the economic in the post-COVID–19 period, the President’s Media Division said. Sri Lanka is a special friend of China.  We have long standing and cordial relations between the two countries.  When we faced COVID- 19 disaster recently, Sri Lanka […]

By: PTI | Courtesy Financial Epress Tourism is the third-largest earner of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka. The decline in tourist arrivals has hit the island nation’s tourism industry in a big way. Sri Lanka is set to enter into an agreement with the Reserve Bank of India for a currency swap worth USD 400 million […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a Presidential Task Force in charge of Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication, the President’s Media Division said. It said the new Task Force has been established under the powers vested in the President by the Constitution. “The Task Force is responsible for reviving the economy and […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Lankan Foreign Minister requests help to bring back Lankan students from India Colombo, April 20 (newsin.asia): The Acting High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Vinod K. Jacob called on Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka Dinesh Gunawardena in Colombo on Monday. During the meeting, the Acting High Commissioner briefed the Lankan Foreign Minister […]

Courtesy Adaderana The COVID-19 outbreak is a good economic opportunity for the country, says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He mentioned this at a special discussion held with Chief Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga this evening (20), on the effects of COVID-19 outbreak in the country. With the halt of the industries that generate foreign exchange, […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is considering the idea of creating a new mechanism to purchase, store and distribute agro products by combining all districts in the country, stated President’s Media Division. Making observations during a meeting with the District Secretaries held at the Presidential Secretariat today (20), the President emphasized that government agents should […]

Courtesy Adaderana The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is reviewing a request from the Sri Lankan government regarding a Rapid Credit Facility and is discussing whether Sri Lanka wants to switch to the new RCF program. We received a letter from Sri Lanka government about our Rapid Credit Facility, you know, the program, RCF […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Provincial health authorities said that the measures taken to combat the coronavirus have been effective Colombo, April 15 (newsin.asia): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday explored the possibility of an immediate resumption of day-to-day economic activities at the provincial level to sustain the national economy. Several representatives of the health sector including […]

Courtesy Adaderana Meeting with the secretaries to ministries yesterday (15) at the Presidential Secretariat, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa discussed rebuilding the economy in the face of the current challenges. Returning to normalcy without compromising safety  A focal point of the discussion was on returning to normalcy, stated president’s Media Division. Thereby, the President emphasized the need […]

Gamini Sarath Godakanda The Pathfinder Foundation has set up a study group chaired by Pathfinder Senior Fellow and former Central Bank Governor, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy to prepare a set of action-oriented recommendations aimed at steering the Sri Lankan economy into the post-COVID-19 era. Dr. Sisira Pinnawala, Department of Sociology University of Peradeniya and Dr. Ganeshan […]