{"id":140455,"date":"2024-02-15T15:41:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T22:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=140455"},"modified":"2024-02-15T15:41:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T22:41:56","slug":"sri-lankas-inflation-expected-to-hit-5-in-medium-term-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/02\/15\/sri-lankas-inflation-expected-to-hit-5-in-medium-term-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s inflation expected to hit 5% in medium term, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s spike in inflation is expected to be short-lived and will return to the targeted 5% in the medium term, a monetary policy report released by the central bank said on Thursday as the island nation\u2019s economy stabilises from a crippling financial crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s economy is seeing glimmers of recovery, helped by a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, after it went into freefall in 2022 due to a severe foreign exchange shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the start of 2024, Sri Lanka raised its value added tax (VAT) to 18% from 15% to meet revenue targets under the IMF programme, sparking a renewed rise in its key inflation rate, which rose to 6.4% at the end of last month from 4% in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), which committed to maintaining inflation at 5% under a new law introduced last year, said price increases from the tax hike in January were unlikely to persist due to subdued demand and the economy operating below its full capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The central bank slashed interest rates by 650 basis points last year to help Sri Lanka\u2019s economy recover from soaring inflation, currency depreciation, and low reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Bank expects Sri Lanka\u2019s economy to grow by 1.7% this year after contracting 3.8% in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, reforms mandated under the IMF programme would need to be speeded up to keep the recovery on track, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8211;Agencies<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka\u2019s spike in inflation is expected to be short-lived and will return to the targeted 5% in the medium term, a monetary policy report released by the central bank said on Thursday as the island nation\u2019s economy stabilises from a crippling financial crisis. Sri Lanka\u2019s economy is seeing glimmers of recovery, helped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}