Courtesy Business Standard Maldives ($9,310 or Rs 6,36,432) and Sri Lanka ($4,060 or Rs 2,77,542) are the only two countries in South Asia in the upper-middle-income group Mumbai: India continues to be a lower-middle-income country along with 46 others, while Sri Lanka has climbed to the upper-middle-income group for the fiscal year (FY) 2020, according to the […]

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today Since 1977, Sri Lanka has been following neo-liberal economic policies uninterruptedly. The change of Government has had no major impact on them. A forty-year period is long enough to assess the correctness of economic policies.  During this four decade period (1977-2019), total production as measured by Gross National Product […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka is likely to raise $2 billion through 5-year and 10-year sovereign bonds launched on Monday, two government officials told Reuters, as the Indian Ocean island nation tapped global capital markets for the second time in three months.A man walks past a board advertising U.S. dollars at a money […]

Courtesy  Saudi Gazette COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is seeking a loan of nearly $1.0 billion from China for energy and highways as the island recovers from the devastating Easter Sunday bombings, the finance ministry said Thursday. Talks are underway with China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to raise the new loan in addition to the […]

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror Government’s decision to cut capital expenditure will affect the contractors who have already undertaken to implement various government projects, UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardane said today. We have heard that the government had decided to cut capital expenditure by 15% and we would like to know what […]

Courtesy Adaderana Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) has decided to increase the price of Petrol 92 Octane by Rs 7.00 per litre and the price hike is set to take effect from midnight today (10). The revised price, which was previously at Rs 140.00 as per the price hike announced by the Lanka IOC last […]

By Paneetha Ameresekere Courtesy Ceylon Today Foreign debt liabilities increased significantly by ‘six percentage points in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) terms’ to 41.2 per cent of the GDP last year (2018) led by a rapid depreciation of the Rupee and low GDP growth in the review period, the Finance Ministry, in a document released on […]

වියත්මග මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය මතුගමදී පැවති ‘වියත්මග’ සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණය අමතමින් ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා මහතා මෙම අදහස් පල කලේය. අද ගොඩක් දෙනෙක් කතා කරන්නේ ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැනයි. ඒ වගේම බොහෝ දෙනෙක්ට අද  අමතක වෙලා රටේ ආර්ථිකය ගැන. ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැන කතා කරන කවුරුත් ආපස්සට ගිය ආර්ථිකය ගැන කතා කරන්නේ නැහැ. අද මෙරට ඉතිහාසයේ නොවූ විරූ ආකාරයේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයකට […]

Dinesh Perera J M Keynes on IndiaThe available statistics appear to show that, whether the phenomena are connected or not, the rise of prices has nearly been proportional to the increase of currency”[1]Apart from the fluctuations of the seasons the Indian level of prices is most influenced at the present time by the extent to […]

Risk-sensitive economic planning and coherence between climate and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies are vital in building resilient societies and economies as envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez stated. He made these remarks addressing the Sixth Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it was holding its forecast for Sri Lanka’s 2019 economic growth at 3.5% in spite of devastating Easter bombings, saying it was too early to assess financial damage.FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, […]

Sri Lanka’s debt crisis and Chinese loans – separating myth from reality. By Umesh Moramudali Sri Lanka is often portrayed as a country that fell into a debt trap as a result of public investment projects financed by China. One such investment project was Hambantota port, which was leased to China Merchant Port Holdings Limited (CM […]

Press Release Pathfinder Foundation Spatial Planning and Regional Development was the theme of the recently held roundtable jointly organized by the Pathfinder Foundation (PF) and the Academy of Macroeconomic Research (AMR) of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China. The AMR delegation that visited Colombo, was headed by Director General Dr. Gao Guoli. […]

SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) Australia In the aftermath of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, the prime Minister of Sri Lankan Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27/04/2019 announced that the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement was signed and that this agreement has provided Sri Lanka USD 500 million which could be […]

Courtesy Adaderana Speaking at a foreign media interview, Kishu Gomes, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, stated that the Easter Day attacks are a blow in the economy at large, not just tourism industry. However, the Chairman says that when considering other tourist destinations which also received similar attacks in similar incidents […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s tourism industry fears losing around $1.5 billion in revenue this year due to Sunday’s attacks, the country’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. Tourism will be the worst affected,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo on Friday. We expect a 30 percent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 […]

Courtesy The Straits Times Country with already precarious external position may be forced to seek more IMF aid HONG KONG • Sri Lanka faces a likely collapse of tourism following the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels, which would deal a severe blow to the island’s economy and financial markets, and potentially force […]

RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Ceylon Today The immediate implementation of the ‘Least Cost Long Term Solar Power Generation Plan’ will save a total of Rs 266 billion for the Sri Lankan economy, the Secretary of the Solar Industries Association (SIA), Lakmal Fernando claimed today (18). He said this at a SIA Press conference held in Colombo. […]

By Frank Vogl Courtesy Ceylon Today Amidst Trump administration flame-throwing, top experts worry about the ability of the main multilateral institutions safeguarding the global economy. On the 75th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference that established the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Finance and Development Ministers and Central Bank Governors from across the world […]

C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island In this interview, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about the tax policy of the UNP government since 2015 and the Budget for 2019. Q. You were a private sector person for the better part of your career. How is the Sri Lankan private sector taking the […]

RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Ceylon Today The continuous power cuts carried out by the Ceylon Electricity Board has adversely affected exports and potential Foreign Direct Investments, claimed Executive Committee Member of the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce, Dr. Krishanth Wisenthige today (10). He was speaking at a ‘Professionals for a Better Future (Viyathmaga)’ press conference […]

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today Compared to Sri Lanka (25,330 sqkms.), Bolivia (1,098, 581 sqkms) is relatively a large country. However, Sri Lanka with around 22 million is more populous than Bolivia, the population of which is estimated at 11 million. Since 2005, a sea change has been taking place in Bolivia covering every […]

By Garvin Karunaratne Power Cuts to the extent of 2 to 3 hours has been the order of the day and the news is just out that we are about to buy 500MW of Power from three Multinationals Agrico, V Power included, our estimated excess requirements for the next 5 years.. What is also important […]

By Prof. Tissa Vitarana Courtesy Ceylon Today BMost people in Sri Lanka are unhappy (Sri Lanka has dropped from the 116th place to the 130th place in the United Nations global ‘Happiness Index,’ out of 156 countries, this year), deeply concerned and bewildered by what is going on in our country. They keep asking what […]

By Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri Courtesy The Island In response to the writer’s previous articles on the present power crisis published in the Island of March 28th and April 05th, he has received from an investor some new information which would shed light on the real party behind the present power crisis. This investor claims that […]

PANEETHA AMERESEKERE Courtesy Ceylon Today Government of Sri Lanka’s (GoSL’s) foreign debt payments cost the country’s foreign reserves US$ 813.26 million last month (March) alone, latest official data showed. Additionally, this month (April), at least one foreign debt amounting to $ 500 million which also matures has to be repaid. This is a $ 500 […]

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS The yahapalana regime initiated with the 2015 presidential election had undisclosed motives and a deformed face in its operation to the country and the pattern of its operation showed that it was associated with highly dishonest elements. At the outset, Mr. Maithrepala Sirisena didn’t know about the president of the party (Swan […]

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror While claiming that people in rural areas had fallen prey to illegal loan schemes including micro-financing organisations, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today urged the government to take steps to ban such organisations and to waive off loans obtained by the people from such organisations. He told […]

By Prof. O. A. Ileperuma Courtesy The Island The budget 2019 reports a massive 2000-billion-rupee deficit. This is going to affect the man on the street via taxes, both direct and indirect and cause severe economic hardships to ordinary people. Combined with the depreciation of the rupee, prices of all consumer items will increase. This […]

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt burden had increased by over Rs 626 billion due to the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar between January 2015 and November 2017, Parliament was told yesterday. State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne revealed this in answer to a question posed by […]