Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports increased by 6.98% to USD 1,091.6 million in August 2023 compared to July 2023, the Export Development Board (EDB) said today (Sept. 26). Citing the provisional data released by Sri Lanka Customs, the EDB said it is, however, a 10.91 % decrease when compared to the value recorded in […]

Courtesy Adaderana The International Monetary Fund is concerned about a shortfall in revenue collection by Sri Lanka’s government this year, though that is unlikely to derail a $2.9 billion loan programme for the crisis-hit country, two Sri Lankan sources told Reuters. A delegation from the IMF met with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is […]

Courtesy The Daily Star Sri Lanka has paid $50 million to Bangladesh, the final instalment of a $200 million loan taken under a currency swap agreement two years ago, a top Bangladesh Bank official said yesterday. The government of the island nation also paid $4.5 million as interest on the loan amount on Thursday, the […]

Jayati Ghosh & Kanchana N. Ruwanpura courtesy IPS Journal.eu The IMF’s bailout plan for Sri Lanka is likely to exacerbate the country’s economic crisis and put further strain on already vulnerable workers More than a year after the mass protest movement known as the Aragalaya ousted Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankans […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s consumer price inflation rate eased to 2.1% year-on-year in August from 4.6% in July, helped by falling food prices, the statistics department said on Thursday. The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) captures broader retail price inflation and is released with a lag of 21 days every month. Sri Lanka’s economy shrank […]

Courtesy Adaderana Acting Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya announced that over the past year, inflation in Sri Lanka has significantly decreased to 62.1%, thanks to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s robust economic reform agenda. Siyambalapitiya also highlighted that inflation, which stood by 66.7% during the first and second quarters of 2022, has now plummeted to just 4.6% for […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Chairman of the Federation of Information Technology Sri Lanka (FITIS), Mr. Indika De Soysa, has projected a substantial boost of USD 15 billion to Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP) through the expansion of the digital economy, by the year 2030. The digital economy currently contributes USD 3.7 billion dollars to the […]

Dialogue works Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City […]

Courtesy AdaDerana The new Central Bank Act, aimed at bolstering the bank’s independence, accountability and price stability in the country, comes into effect today (15 Sep.), Acting Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said. Accordingly, the Acting Minister explained that as per the new Act, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s (CBSL) ability to print money […]

Courtesy AdaDerana Sri Lanka bank ratings are unaffected by the downgrade of Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating to ‘RD’ from ‘C’, says Fitch Ratings. On 14 September 2023, the global credit rating agency downgraded the sovereign’s Long-Term Local-Currency Issuer Default Rating following the completion of an exchange of treasury bonds for longer-dated ones, […]

Courtesy Daily Mirror The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Sri Lanka in its recent sanitised report of the 2021/22 National Risk Assessment (NRA) on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) has assessed the overall risk for the country as medium. The report was developed based on the assessment conducted by the FIU of the Central […]

Courtesy AdaDerana The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has told the Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on International Relations that it is economically important for Sri Lanka to work with BRICS countries. Attending the SOC meeting chaired by MP Namal Rajapaksa on Tuesday (05), the Central Bank officials have pointed out that 41% of the […]

Courtesy Adaderana Former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy highlighted the macro-economic stress as the main reason for the regression in Sri Lanka’s socio-economic indicators during the past 75 years of the country. Addressing a virtual event to launch the policy report ‘Understanding Multidimensional Vulnerabilities: Impact on People of […]

Courtesy Adaderana Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, has been named amongst the 21 Bank Governors listed in the Global Finance Magazine’s Central Banker Report Cards for the year 2023. Accordingly, Dr. Weerasinghe was amongst the 10 governors who earned an ‘A-’ grade. On 23 August, the Global Finance Magazine released […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පවතින ආර්ථික අර්බුදය නිර්මාණය කළේ වත්මන් මහ බැංකු අධපති නන්දලාල් වීරසිංහ බව ජාතික සංවිධාන එකමුතුවේ වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර චෝදනා කරයි. 2015-2019 දක්වා කාලය තුළ මහ බැංකුවේ නියෝජ්‍ය අධිපතිවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරමින් ඇ.ඩො. බිලියන 12 කට වැඩි ජාත්‍යන්තර ස්වෛරී බැඳුම්කර ණයට ගැනීමට සහාය වෙමින් සහ ඩොලර් බිලියන 53 ක […]

Courtesy AdaDerana Sri Lanka’s Department of Census and Statistics says that headline inflation based on the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) has further reduced to 4% in August, compared to 6.3% in July 2023.  According to its latest report, Colombo’s food Inflation has decreased to -4.8% in August, from -1.4% in July 2023. The CCPI […]

Courtesy AdaDerana Sri Lanka saw a notable increase in workers’ remittances and a boost in tourist arrivals in July 2023, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) says. In its latest report on the external sector performance, the CBSL said the workers’ remittances recorded in July 2023 climbed to USD 541 million from USD 279 […]

Courtesy Hiru News In a move aimed at promoting financial relief for borrowers, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has issued an Order to reduce the interest rates on lending products offered by licensed commercial banks (LCBs) and licensed specialized banks (LSBs). The new rates will come into effect from August 25. Under this […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Pivithuru Hela Urumaya(PHU) leader MP Udaya Gammanpila requested President Ranil Wickremesinghe in writing to take steps for Sri Lanka to become a member of BRICS, an organized named after its original five members- Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. Gammanpila, in an open letter to the president, said global economic and […]

Courtesy Adaderana A circular focusing on measures to accelerate the fall in market lending rates is due to be issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Friday (25 Aug). Accordingly, a circular is due to be issued tomorrow focusing on methods to ensure that the lending rates reflect the recent Monetary Policy relaxation, […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Sri Lanka is targeting to get US $ 2 billion investments this year, an increase from only US $ 1 billion reported last year, said Chairman of the Board of Investment Dinesh Weerakkody.  We are looking at targeted initiatives to get from $ 1 billion in 2022 to $ 2 billion […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka’s consumer price inflation slowed to 4.6% year-on-year in July from 10.8% in June, helped by easing food prices, the statistics department said on Monday. The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) captures broader retail price inflation and is released with a lag of 21 days every month. Food prices contracted to negative […]

Prime Minister’s Media Division Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, (and Foreign Minister) vowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt on Wednesday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central […]

Courtesy Livemint China assures Sri Lanka of help with debt challenges ahead of IMF bailout plan Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is likely to get help from its largest bilateral creditor China ahead of IMF’s bailout plan. According to the PTI agency report, China has assured the island nation it will address the debt challenges before it […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, vowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt on Wednesday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror It has been five months since Sri Lanka entered the board-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on its 17th programme. Month-to-month progress has been tracked in the public domain by the IMF Tracker (https://manthri.lk/en/imf_tracker ), a platform maintained by Verité Research.The IMF Tracker identifies programme commitments that have been […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror President Ranil Wickremesinghe urged officials in the gem and jewellery industry to swiftly provide comprehensive plans for achieving the country’s objective of bolstering annual export earnings through enhancements in the gems and jewellery exports and re-exports. During a recent discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat to address issues within the gem […]

Pathfinder Foundation Pathfinder Foundation, in partnership with two prominent think tanks based in New Delhi, namely, NatStrat and Vivekananda International Foundation, and the Confederation of Indian Industry, will launch its report “Medium and Long-term Strategy for Indo-Japanese Collaboration to Support the Economic Transformation of Sri Lanka” on 10th August 2023 in New Delhi. The event […]

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio Nearly 90% (33 of 38) of central banks monitored by the Bank for International Settlements raised interest rates in 2022, a dramatic shift away from the loose financial conditions that characterized the previous decade. With a rapid rise in rates, the risk of unintended consequences and policy error is high, with […]

Courtesy Ada Derana Sri Lanka’s inflation rate, which dropped to single digits for the first time in months in July, may still face headwinds from rising water, food and energy prices, analysts say, in a challenge for a crisis-hit country seeking to foster growth. Inflation has dropped sharply in recent months from the 69% hit […]