By Prof. Sirimevan Colombage Emeritus Professor of Economics, Open University of Sri Lanka May 8, 2018, 12:00 pm Sri Lanka is facing harsh external financing vulnerabilities contrary to the Central Bank’s recent claims that the country’s gross official foreign reserves have risen to the historically highest level of US $ 9.9 billion, reflecting improved economic […]

by Sanath Nanayakkare Courtesy The Island May 3, 2018, 12:00 pm Analyzing the Central Bank’s Annual report 2017 on 77 points and ratios, former Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal said yesterday that the government; especially Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe who spearheads the economy, has failed the national economy lock, stock and barrel since […]

by Maheesha Mudugamuwa Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday said the 20th Amendment to the constitution which the JVP had proposed to be presented to the parliament, was not the biggest issue of the country at the moment. The party urged President Miathripala Sirisena to dissolve the parliament to end the current economic […]

by Ajith Nivard Cabraal Former Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Courtesy The Island May 2, 2018, 10:19 pm * Increase in the Total Debt Stock due to the Depreciation of the Rupee since the Yahapalanaya government came to power, reaches a staggering Rs. 836.0 billion, which is equivalent to over six times the amount borrowed to […]

Courtesy Reuters COLOMBO, May 2 (Reuters) – The Sri Lankan rupee hit a fresh low on Wednesday on importer demand for the U.S. currency, dealers said, but recovered after the central bank intervened in the market. The local unit gained for the first time in seven sessions on Tuesday, after hitting a record low in […]

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් 2018 මාර්තු සහ අප්‍රේල් දෙමස තුළ පමණක් රු. ට්‍රිලියනයක්, (බිලියන 1000) ක සල්ලි අච්චු ගසා ඇතැයි ප්‍ර‍වෘත්තියකි.  එය සමාජ ජාලාවන්හි දිගටම ප්‍ර‍චාරය වේ.  එය පට්ටපල් බොරුවකි! 1951 සිට 2017 දෙසැම්බර් දක්වා මහ බැංකුව අච්චු ගසා ඇති මුදල් ප්‍ර‍මාණය 2017 මහබැංකු වාර්ෂික වාර්තාවේ237 පිටුවේ 7.4 වගුවේ දැක්වේ.  එහි 4 වන තීරුවට අනුව, රු. බිලියන […]

Colombo, April 29 (The Island): Sri Lanka’s economy grew at the slowest pace in 16 years to record a  worse than expected 3.1 percent GDP expansion last year, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The bank had expected the economy to grow at about 5.0 percent in 2017, but a drought and […]

YUJI KURONUMA, Nikkei staff writer China-financed infrastructure projects put country in vicious cycle. NEW DELHI — Sri Lanka, which has loaded up on Chinese-funded infrastructure, is sinking deeper into a debt trap as its currency weakens and economic growth decelerates to its slowest pace in 16 years. The Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated 3% against the greenback […]

Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka’s economy grew at the slowest pace in 16 years to record a  worse than expected 3.1 percent GDP expansion last year, according to the central bank. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka had expected the economy to grow at about 5.0 percent in 2017, but a drought and floods affected […]

By DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island April 26, 2018, 12:00 pm An explosion is not always a good thing. But it is not always preventable. Sometimes an explosion cannot be predicted but sometimes it can. Often an explosion is not inevitable but that does not mean it isn’t likely or even probable. In any country, […]

COLOMBO, April 26 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares edged down in dull trade on Thursday and settled near their lowest close in more than one week hit earlier in the week as continued political uncertainty dampened sentiment, stockbrokers said. The market has been awaiting signs of political stability after President Maithripala Sirisena suspended parliament until […]

Courtesy The Island April 26, 2018, 12:05 pm Cabraal Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday said that during the past one week, the Sri Lankan rupee had depreciated Rs. 1.58 (from Rs. 157.46 to Rs. 159.04) against the US dollar. Since the foreign debt of Sri Lanka was approximately USD 30 billion, the […]

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror While claiming that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka lacked sufficient funds to pay back the Treasury bonds and bills before their date of expiry, MP Bandula Gunawardana said the bond market could collapse due to the prevailing situation. Addressing a news briefing, he said the government needs to pay […]

By Editor  Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, April 24 (newsin.asia) – A group of investors from Pakistan, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday have expressed interest to construct a state of the art hospital in the island country to perform heart surgeries and to build two tourism zones as well as to construct a low-cost new housing scheme. The […]

CSIS Briefs Courtesy Center for Strategic and International Studies The Issue Unable to repay its debt, Sri Lanka gave China a controlling equity stake and a 99-year lease for Hambantota port, which it handed over in December 2017. The economic rationale for Hambantota is weak, given existing capacity and expansion plans at Colombo port, fueling concerns that it […]

වත්මන් රජයේ බදුගැන අවබෝධයක්‍ ඇති මුදල් අමාත්‍යවරයෙක් සිටියේ නෑ… බන්දුල

The public are burdened due to tax increase – Former President (English)

By C. A. Chanadraprema (Island) In a recent article titled “Yahapalana government as a hyper-debt regime”, Professor Milton Rajaratne of the University of Peradeniya has pointed out that even though the yahapalana government accuses the Rajapaksa government of having imposed an immense debt burden on the country, the present government too has borrowed ‘surprising amounts’ of […]

ගොසිප් සී ලංකා වෙබ් අඩවිය වෙළද පොළේ පාරිභෝගික භාණ්ඩවල මිල ගණන් ඉතාමත් ඉහළ මට්ටමක වතින අතර ජනතාවට මෙවර සිංහල හා හින්දු අලුත් අවුරුද්ද සමරන්න වී තිබෙන්නේ ඉතාමත් දුෂ්කර විදිහටය. එම නිසා සිංහල හා හිංදු අලුත් අවරුද්ද වෙනුවෙන් පාරිභෝගික කටයුතු පිළිබද අධිකාරිය ජනතාවට අවුරුදු සැමරීම සදහා කිසියම් සහන වැඩ පිළිවළක් සකස් කර ඇත්දැයි අප ගොසිප් සී ලංකා වෙබ් […]

COLOMBO, March 19 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan shares fell to their lowest close in nearly seven weeks on Monday, as investors sold diversified and manufacturing stocks on worries over slower economic growth, brokers said. The statistics department withdrew its 2017 full-year and fourth-quarter GDP data on Friday, a day after saying the economy expanded 3.1 […]

Jane Perlez, Yufan Huang Courtesy The  Independent (UK) At the heart of China’s economic ambitions is the construction of a railway linking eight countries, but what effect will it have on the wider region? Chinese workers prepare for the building of a railway linking China to Laos at Bopiat village in the Northern province of Louang Namtha Getty […]

 lanka C news ජනතා ද්‍රෝහී ආර්ථික වැඩපිලිවෙලවල් යෝජනා කරමින් ආණ්ඩුව කෙරෙහි ජනතා අප‍්‍රසාදය ඇති කරන ලද්දේ ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදල විසින් බව හිටපු මුදල් ඇමති රවි කරුණානායක මහතා පවසයි. ජාත්‍යන්තර මුල්‍ය අරමුදලේ මෙරට කාර්යභාරය අවසන් බැවින් ඔවුන් මෙරටින් පිටව යා යුතු යයිද මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයා සදහන් කරයි. මහ බැංකුවේ පණ්ඩිතයන්ගේ ක‍්‍රියාකාරකම් නිසා ආණ්ඩුව පෙරලෙන තත්වයක් ඇති වී තිබෙන […]

By C. A. Chanadraprema Courtesy The Island February 28, 2018, 10:36 pm In a recent article titled “Yahapalana government as a hyper-debt regime”, Professor Milton Rajaratne of the University of Peradeniya has pointed out that even though the yahapalana government accuses the Rajapaksa government of having imposed an immense debt burden on the country, the present […]

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Former President of Sri Lanka The government has introduced in parliament the Active Liability Management Bill seeking authorization to borrow over Rs. one trillion from local and foreign sources, over and above the yearly borrowing limit set by parliament. The yahapalana government has been irresponsible and reckless in borrowing money from its inception. […]

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් වසරක් පාසා පනවන ණය ගැනීමේ සීමාව ඉක්මවා, විධායකයට  වෙනම රුපියල් ට්‍රිලියනයක (එනම් බිලියන දහසක) ණය දේශීය හෝ විදේශීය මූලාශ්‍ර වලින් ලබා ගැනීමට හැකිවන පරිදි නව නීතියක් සම්පාදනය කිරීම සඳහා ආණ්ඩුව සක්‍රීය බැරකම් කළමනාකරණය කිරීම” යන මැයෙන් පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට හඳුන්වා දී ඇත. යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව මුලසිටම ණය ගැනීම් […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island On the instructions of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, his deputy, Dr. Harsha de Silva has initiated talks with the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy to iron out differences over proposed controversial National Payment […]

S. Navaratne   February 11, 2018, 10:01 pm One feels somewhat disconcerted when a highly respected public servant makes comments that go far and beyond his remit albeit in his view to further yahapalana aims. The job of the Auditor General on matters relating to public debt is to provide to the public evidence based facts after stringent auditing […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Alleging that Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe has issued a controversial statement in respect of national debt beneficial to the ruling coalition ahead of the Feb. 10 local government polls, National Polls Observation Center (NPOC) has urged the National Election Commission and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka to inquire […]

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island February 5, 2018, 11:22 pm The manipulation of the secondary bond market by Perpetual Treasuries caused three state institutions, Employees’ provident Fund (EPF,) Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) and National Savings Bank (NSB), to lose over Rs. 31 billion, anti corruption activists said yesterday. “On Sunday we revealed that the […]

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මාහාචාර්ය සුනන්ද මද්දුමබණ්ඩාර කැලණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ආර්ථික විද්‍යා අධ්‍යයන අංශය lanka C news ජනවාරි 6 වන දින ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා රටේ ජනමාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රධානීන් අමතා කළ ප‍්‍රකාශය පිළිබඳව දෙස් විදෙස් ආර්ථික විද්‍යාඥයන්ගේ සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය ආයතනවල අවධානය මේ වන විටත් යොමු වී ඇතැයි සිතිය හැක. එයට හේතුව එතුමා රටේ ආර්ථික කටයුතු පිළිබඳව ඉතා ආන්දෝලාත්මක කරුණු […]