A Response from Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former Governor of the Central Bank Courtesy The Island October 11, 2018, 9:04 pm In Aesop’s Fables’ “The Fox and the Grapes”, the fox, when it finds that it is unable to reach the grapes it is seeking, claims that the “grapes are sour”, and hence it’s not worthwhile reaching […]

By Hiran H.Seneiwiratne Courtesy The Island October 11, 2018, 8:15 pm The government’s price control practice  through taxation on essential items does not serve the purpose because it limits the value in reducing cost and damage markets by preventing the supply of products from rising to meet demand, a top market research company said. “The price […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island The current government’s needlessly self-destructive overemphasis of corruption and the oft-repeated ‘debt mountain’ scared away foreign investors who lost faith in the country’s administrative and financial system, Dr Nalaka Godahewa, former chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) told the media at the Patriotic Professionals’ press briefing held on Monday. […]

ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම ලංකාවේ මේ අවස්ථාවේ විශාල සමාජ ආර්ථික දේශපාලන අර්බුදයක් ඇති බව නොපිළිගන්නා අයෙක් වේ නම් ඒ එක්කෝ බොරුකාරයෙකි. නැත්නම් මෝඩයෙකි. මන්ද සත්‍යය ඕනෑම අයකුට ඇස් ඉදිරිපිටම දක්නට ඇති බැවිනි. දේශපාලන වේදිකාවල රටේ ජනතාවට හැමදාමත් බිල්ලන් මවන වත්මන් අගමැතිවරයාගේ අලුත්ම හෙළිදරව්ව නම් ලෝක ආර්ථික අර්බුදයක් ඇති බවත් ලංකාව ඉන් පීඩනයට ලක්වී ඇති බවත්ය. […]

Panos Mourdoukoutas Courtesy forbes.com The IMF won’t solve Pakistan’s debt problem. In dealing with a soaring foreign debt, Pakistan has a couple of choices. One of them is to cancel Chinese projects, as Malaysia did back in August. The other choice is to allow China to turn debt into equity, as Sri Lanka did back in […]

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA It is heartening to note that the government is paying serious attention to the rapid depreciation of the rupee and the deterioration of the economy. We are being told that the import of luxury cars and other luxury items will be suspended for a short period of six months to improve foreign exchange […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island Woeful mismanagement of the economy coupled with the resultant steep fall in foreign reserves and the unjustifiable depreciation of the rupee will leave the government with serious cashflow problems in the future and the general public will have to stand in queues across the country every single day for hours […]

COLOMBO, Oct 8 (Reuters) – ** The Sri Lankan rupee hit a record low for a fourth straight session on Monday due to dollar demand from importers and foreign banks amid outflows from government securities, while stocks rose for a fourth consecutive session to a more than two-week closing high. ** The rupee fell to […]

 සාකච්ඡා කළේ – ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත[Divaina] රුපියල පිරිහීම වාසියි කියන අය පුළුවන්නම් ඒක ජනතාවට කියන්න – කබ්රාල්ගෙන් අභියෝගයක් අද හැම දෙනාම කතා කරන්නේ රුපියල කඩා වැටීම ගැනය. මේ තත්වය පාලනය කිරීමට රජයත් මහ බැංකුවත් පිළියම් යෙදිය යුතුව තිබේ. අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා මෙන්ම මුදල් හා ජනමාධ්‍ය ඇමති මංගල සමරවීර මහතාද මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආනයන පාලනය කළ […]

by Ajith Nivard Cabraal Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Courtesy The Island October 7, 2018, 9:56 pm As per the Monetary Law Act (MLA), it is a statutory duty of the Central Bank’s is to maintain “economic and price stability”. In so doing, the MLA requires the Monetary Board “to maintain the international stability […]

The Editorial Courtesy The Island Despite some reassuring noises from the Central Bank, the rupee keeps depreciating and the repercussions across the national economy must necessarily be pervasive. We’ve already had a fuel and gas price increase and given the way the global oil markets are behaving, it is unlikely that local prices will remain […]

By Udaya P Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today The rupee is now resting for a while in its continuous sliding journey, thanks to the Central Bank.  The Central Bank has generously released its foreign reserves to the forex market to stabilize the rupee. The Bank has released 184 million dollars for this purpose. As a result, instead […]

 ඉතා හදිසි වැදගත් පුවත්පත් නිවේදනයි කැෆේ සංවිධානය හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව සතු ඩොලර් සංචිතය 2018 අප්‍රේල් සිට සැප්තෑම්බර් දක්වා කාර්තුව තුල ඩොලර් මිලියන 1268 කින් පහත වැටී ඇතැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය පුවත්පත් නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් පවසයි. 2018 අප්‍රෙල් මස බැංකුව සතු සංචිත ඩොලර් මිලියන 9015 ක් වූ අතර, […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Chinese Government did not get Sri Lanka into a debt trap by lending money to it,” Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Karunasena Kodituwakku has said. If anybody is saying that the Chinese government lent money to us to put Sri Lanka into a debt trap, I don’t agree with that […]

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්  ‘අර්ථික කටයුතු පිළිබද අවසන් තීරණ ගැනීම සදහා National Economic Council නැතිනම් ජාතික අර්ථික කවුන්සිලය කියලා ආයතනයක් නිර්මාණය කර තිබෙනවා. ජනාධිපති, අගමැති, මුදල් ඇමති, මහ බැංකු අධිපති, ලේකම්වරු මෙහි සාමාජිකයින්.  මෑත යුගයේ දැවැන්තම මුල්‍ය අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩ එන්නට ජාතික අර්ථික කවුන්සිලය ගත්ත ප්‍ර‍තිපත්ති තීරණ මොනවාද කියලා රටට පැහැදිලි කළ යුතු යැයි කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ […]

Courtesy The Standard (HK) Despite late measures including restrictions on imports of politicians’ duty free super luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Audis, and Range Rover Discovery SUVs, the Sri Lankan rupee continued to fall today versus the US dollar. The heavily indebted government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe has been […]

ඉෂාරා සිල්වා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම රුපියල ස්ථාවරව පවත්වාගැනීම සඳහා දින හතරක් ඇතුළත මහ බැංකුව ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 154.5ක මුදලක් වෙළෙඳපොළට මුදාහැර තිබෙන බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන පැවැසීය. මන්ත්‍රිවරයා සඳහන් කර සිටියේ සැප්තැම්බර් 25 වැනි දින ඇ.ඩො.මි. 32.5ක්, සැප්තැම්බර් 26 වන දින ඇ.ඩො.මි. 56ක්, සැප්තැම්බර් 27 වැනි වැනි ඇ.ඩො.මි. 30ක් සහ 28 වැනි දින ඇ.ඩො.මි. 30ක් […]

Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Ministries of Finance, Development Strategies and International trade and Trade and Commerce and the Central Bank will, within a week, decide on the steps to be taken to keep the rupee stable in the wake of the global economic crisis, sources close to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday. […]

The Central Bank intervened by US$ 184 million on a net basis so far this year to defend the depreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee. In 2015 under this government about US$ 3.2 billion was spent to defend the Rupee and the Rupee was depreciated by little under 10%.” So far we’ve had a 9.5% […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily News The Central Bank has released US$157.7 million to the market within four days to stabilise the rupee which stands at Rs.170 against the US dollar, joint opposition (JO) MP Bandula Gunawardana today said. When the IMF is releasing US$169 million to Sri Lanka as loans, he said the evaporation of […]

Nawagamu Deshabandu  Many of us know that there are many factors for the Sri- Lankan rupee deprecation. But, it is a concern that rate of the depreciation of Sri-Lankan rupee has accelerated. It is true that many other countries have their currency depreciation due to the impact of American politics, but their rate of depreciation […]

Courtesy The Mail on line (UK) The Sri Lankan rupee has lost more than 10 percent of its value against the US dollar Sri Lanka announced a raft of restrictions Saturday in a bid to slow down imports of cars and luxury goods as the country faces a foreign exchange shortage. The finance ministry banned […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Government announced several temporary measures to be implemented with effect from midnight today (29) to ease the pressure on the Sri Lankan rupee. Accordingly, the issuing of vehicle permits to Members of Parliament will be suspended for a period of one year while the importation of vehicles for Government Ministries, Departments, Statutory […]

By DR. C.S. WEERARATNA Former Professor of Agronomy, Ruhuna University, and former Professor of Soils and Water Resources, Rajarata University Courtesy The Island September 27, 2018, 8:49 pm A trade deficit typically occurs when a country does not produce enough goods for its residents. Alternatively, a deficit means that a country’s consumers are wealthy enough to purchase […]

IMF Communications Department A strong policy mix and exchange rate flexibility are critical to strengthen the economy’s resilience to market volatility, while supporting competitiveness and growth. Advancing revenue-based fiscal consolidation in the 2019 budget can support Sri Lanka’s ambitious social and development goals while reducing public debt. The authorities should sustain reform efforts to support […]

Lanka Lead News දේශීය ආර්ථිකය රැකගැනීමට ආණ්ඩුවට නොහැකිනම් රටට ආදරය කරන දේශිය කර්මාන්ත කරුවන්ට ආර්ථිකය ගොඩනැගීමේ මග පෙන්වීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දෙන්නැයි මව්බිම ලංකා පදනමේ සභාපති ආරියශීල වික්‍රමනායක මහතා පවසයි. පසුගිය (25) වනදා බණ්ඩාරනායක සම්ම‍න්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ පැවති උත්සවයකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේය. ”අපි ආණ්ඩුවට හැමදාම කියනවා හැමදේම පිටරටින් එනකල් කට ඇරගෙන බලා ඉදල හරියන්නෙ […]

COLOMBO, Sept 26 (Reuters) – The Sri Lankan rupee hit a fresh low of 169.05 on Wednesday on importer dollar demand, while intervention by the central bank limited the fall, market sources said. Sri Lanka’s finance minister urged its people to buy local products and shun unnecessary imports in order to reduce the trade deficit […]

 Courtesy Deutsche Welle A decade after the Sri Lankan Civil War, the country’s economy is growing fast. The government has big plans, but high debt levels — and high levels of Chinese influence — cast a cloud as the country seeks investors. You don’t need to be an expert on international trade routes to look […]

By Charunya Rajakaruna Courtesy Adaderana The current government has arrived at a point where they influence on what the public should consume, says the Joint Opposition. MP Shehan Semasinghe stated this at a press conference held in Colombo today (25). A statement made by the Prime Minister recently, it was confirmed that the incumbent government doesn’t have […]

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island September 22, 2018, 7:53 pm Central Bank records show that in 1950, the average Rupee value of a US Dolllar was Rs. 4.76 and that it was retained at that rate for over one and a half decades till 1966. With the foreign exchange crunch that hit Sri Lanka in the […]