By Anusha Ondaatjie Courtesy Bloomberg.com Island’s 2Q GDP expands 2.6% y/y versus 4.9% median forecast Central Bank raised benchmark interest rates in July Share on FacebookShare on Twitter  Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product expanded less than estimated in the previous quarter, even as central bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy raised key interest rates in his first review in July. […]

සවනි ශේශාධි උපුටා ගැන්ම මව්බිම වැඩබිමක්ව තිබූ රට මුඩුබිමක් බවට පරිවර්තනය කොට ආණ්ඩුවේ මැති ඇමැතිවරුන් වචනවලින් පමණක් ආකාශයේ මාලිගා තනමින් සිටින බව ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි බන්ධුල ගුණවර්ධන පවසයි. බත්තරමුල්ල නෙලුම් මාවත පිහිටි කාර්යාලයේදී ඊයේ (13දා) ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂයේ ආර්ථික පර්යේෂණ කමිටුවේ මාධ්‍ය හමුවට එක්වෙමින් හෙතෙම මේ බව පැවැසීය. එහිදී තවදුරටත් අදහස් දක්වමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මෙසේද […]

By Umesh Moramudali Courtesy Ceylon Today Alliance for Economic Democracy (AED) is an organization formed by a group of persons who insists upon the importance of economic justice. Ceylon Today interviewed Ahilan Kadirgamar, a member of the AED, who in the course of the interview insisted how the possible outcomes of the IMF Agreement hurt the […]

by Ravi Ladduwahetty Courtesy Ceylon Today “All of the problems we’re facing with debt are manmade problems. We created them. It’s called fantasy economics. Fantasy economics only works in a fantasy world. It doesn’t work in reality.” This profound quote came from Michele Marie Bachmann (6 April 1956), an American Republican politician. She is a former […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island September 8, 2016, 9:36 pm The government has embarked on an ambitious project to tap solar energy as part of its strategy to avert a looming power crisis. Addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo, Minister of Power and Renewable Energy Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said, the other day, that the […]

By Umesh Moramudali and Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy Ceylon Today Poverty has been one of the major issues faced by many developing nations and Sri Lanka is no exception. Recently, World Bank released a poverty assessment report on Sri Lanka, which attempted to identify causes for poverty and solutions to the issue. The report states that overall, Sri Lanka’s […]

By Niranjala Ariyawansha Courtesy Ceylon Today United Professionals Movement (UPM) warns Sri Lanka that signing the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India, a country with a systematic national trade policy, will definitely make Sri Lanka face irreversible dangerous repercussions. UPM has urged the government to plan a trade policy, which the country lacks since […]

Sri Lanka News Sri Lanka is taking measures to ease the restrictions imposed on foreigners acquiring land in the island nation for investment projects, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Wednesday. But the strict foreign exchange control imposed by the Central bank make it impossible for the investors to repatriate their invested […]

By The Nation – Aug 27, 2016 Around 85 treasury officials are supposed to have decided to leave the boards of state enterprises to which they have been nominated, to represent the shareholdings of the government. The issue has come up because some of the officials who had served on such boards are disturbed as […]

Dr. Chandana Jayalath We hear in media that many big infrastructure development projects are on the pipeline. Many contracts have been already begun to kick. However, we are not ready to take up the challenge of undertaking these jobs mainly because of shortage of skilled labor. The very message is that the construction sector is […]

 lanka C news මන්නාරම් ධීවර සමිති සහයෝගිතා එකමුතුවේ සභාපති එන්.එම් ආලම් පවසන්නේ ඉන්දීය ධීවරයන්ට කිසි ලෙසකින් මෙරට මුහුදු සීමාව උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමට ඉඩ දිය නොහැකි බවත් යෝජිත බලපත් ක‍්‍රමය ගෙන ආවොත් දැවැන්ත විරෝධතා සිදු කරන බවත්ය. මේ අතර වාර්තා වන්නේ මෙම බලපත් ක‍්‍රමය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කර දෙරට අතර හොද හිත රැුකගෙන රාජ්‍යතාන්ත‍්‍රික සබදතා වර්ධනයට කටයුතු කළ යුතු […]

By Paneetha Ameresekere Courtesy Ceylon Today The future fiscal policy of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) would be to borrow to settle debt and not to enhance government finance, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said. Sri Lanka’s debt profile is equivalent to 76% of GDP. Speaking at the CIMA Business […]

කැදවුම්කරු, ඒකාබද්ධ රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරී සංගමය දෙනවා යැයි පොරොන්දු වු ගුරු පත්වීම් ලබාදෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලමින් අද දින (23) වයඹ පළාත් ගුරු විභාග සමතුන් විසින් මාරාන්තික උපවාසයක් ආරම්භ කර ඇත. ගුරු පුරප්පාඩු 3500 කට අධික ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ඇති බවට පළාත් අධයාපන ඇමතිවරයා පවසා ඇති මොහොතක මෙසේ පත්වීම් ලබා නොදී සිටීම තරයේ හෙළදකිමු. විශේෂයෙන් පසුගිය කාලය පුරා සියලූ උපාධිධාරීන්ට […]

Observer Courtesy The Island August 17, 2016, 7:56 pm Politicians from the top downwards, and fellow travelling columnists, keep on repeating that the current foreign exchange  difficulties faced by the country stem from servicing the foreign debts incurred by the Rajapaksa Government amounting to Rs. 9,000 billion and more. The evidence, however, supports the view that […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island August 16, 2016, 8:02 pm The proposed Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India continues to dominate public discussion. The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has reiterated its position that the formulation of a national policy on international trade pacts must precede the inking of the ETCA. Else, […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island August 13, 2016, 6:53 pm Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, responding to the Joint Opposition’s objections to ETCA (the proposed Indo-Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperative Agreement), observed wryly that had the JO been around at the time, it would no doubt have also opposed Arahat Mahinda. “They surely would have opposed him coming […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekera We are a poor third world country hence we depend heavily on borrowing.We go to other countries and plead aid and donations .Japan ,Korea ,UK and EU countries provide donations and attach the funding to a condition stipulating that the award of the contract should be given to  the country who donates […]

lanka C news වැට් බදු වැඩි කිරීමකින් තොරව රජයට ආදායම් උපයා ගන්නා ආකාරය සම්බන්දයෙන් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා වෙත ලිපියක් යොමු කරමින් මව්බිම ලංකා පදනම අදහස් දක්වා තිබේ. මාධ්‍ය වෙතද පිටපත් යොමු කර ඇති එම ලිපිය මෙහි වෙයි.

lanka C news කොළඹ ගාළු මුවදොර ඉදිකරන වරාය නගරය ඉදිකල පසු අයත් වන්නේ ලංකාවේ කුමන පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයකටදැයි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ නායක අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගෙන් ප‍්‍රශ්න කලේය. වරාය නගරය භූමිය අලූත් සංස්ථාවකට අයත් වන්නේ යයි අගමැති වික‍්‍රමසිංහ පිලිතුරු දුන් විට ජවිපෙ නායකයා කියා සිටියේ එවන් සංස්ථාවකට අයත් විය යුතු […]

N.A.de S.Amaratunga Courtesy The Island August 12, 2016, 8:18 pm Both heads of ‘yahapalanaya’ say that nothing can stop them from going on merrily for five years until 2020, although the two heads are pulling in two directions and the two tails try to wag each other and sometimes their heads. In 2014 we had a […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) would not extend its support for the vote on the Value Added Tax (VAT) if amendments requested by the party are not considered, a source said. This was discussed during a meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat Office with the participation of the committee of legal experts […]

 Editorial Courtesy The Island August 9, 2016, 7:40 pm The government has received another sobering gavel blow from the Supreme Court. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya informed Parliament yesterday that the apex court had held that the VAT (Amendment) Bill was unacceptable as it did not adhere to due process. The court previously suspended the implementation of the […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින සතිය ආරම්භයේම “වැට්‌” කතාව නැවත පත්තු වී තිබේ. ඊයේ (8 දා) “දිවයින” පුවත්පතේ ශීර්ෂ පාඨය වූයේද එයයි. තොග සහ සිල්ලර වෙළෙ¹ම අරභයා රජය විසින් අලුතින් පනවන ලද වැට්‌ බද්දට විරෝධය පළකරමින් අද දවසේ සිට අඛණ්‌ඩ විරෝධතා දැක්‌වීමට දිවයින පුරා විසිරී සිටින වෙළෙඳ සංගම් නියෝජිතයින් තීරණය කර තිබේ. ඊයේ “දිවයින” පුවත්පත වාර්තා කර […]

– අරවින්ද අතුකෝරල පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුම පක්‍ෂ මූලස්ථානයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී එම පක්‍ෂ ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා මෙසේ අදහස් පල කලේය. වැට් බදු පනත් කෙටුම්පත පිළිබඳ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ මතය හෙට දිනයේ දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. අපේ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව ආණ්ඩුවේ පණතක් ඇමති මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය ලබාගෙන ඉදිරිපත් කල යුතුවුවත් මේ පණත ඇමති මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය […]

Wade Shepard Courtesy Forbes If there is a bright spot in Sri Lanka and China’s multi-billion dollar Hambantota debacle it’s that nobody has given up on it yet. Too big to fail” is a term that’s often been applied to China’s large-scale developments which don’t take off right away or appear to be failures that the […]

Courtesy The Island August 4, 2016, 9:45 pm Former President and Kurunegala District parliamentarian Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday called on all MPs to oppose the VAT Bill when it is taken up by parliament next week. He said unbearable taxes were being imposed on the public due to costly election handouts like the salary hike given […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island August 3, 2016, 9:03 pm A group of ministers, on Tuesday, making a statement on the Colombo Port City Project, strove to have the public believe that the aggrieved Chinese company had agreed to forgo damages (amounting to USD 125 mn). They declared that the economic diplomacy of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government had […]

by C.R. de Silva, Retired World Bank Official Courtesy The Island Continued from yesterday The Telegraph (Business News) has just headlined a story “IMF admits disastrous love affair with the Euro and apologises for the Immolation of Greece”, and commented on the IMF’s negative evaluation scenario summarized above, as follows : “The IMF’s top staff misled their […]

Courtesy Asia Times China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) has dropped its claim against the Sri Lankan government for $143 million in compensation for delaying the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City development, in return for getting additional land for the project, the government said on Tuesday. The news completes a U-turn on the Port City project […]

by C. R. de Silva, Retired World Bank Official Courtesy The Island August 2, 2016, 8:17 pm IMF PROGRAM CONTEXT: In two recent feature stories published in The Island, ( titled Sri Lanka – Case for $ 3-4.5 Billion in IMF Funding in May 2016 and Sri Lanka – Avoiding the Road to Greece? on 13 […]