… USD 5 mn paid to Iran a month By Shamindra Ferdinando Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera has confirmed that consumers of petrol and diesel have been made to pay Rs. 50 to Rs. 55 per litre since the middle of last year to settle what the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) owed its creditors. […]

Ms. Shashi Kandambi, a leading professional in the banking sector, has assumed office as the 19th General Manager/CEO of National Savings Bank (NSB) on 10th January 2024. Ms. Kandambi was the Senior Deputy General Manager of International Banking at Sampath Bank, where she had a long-standing and successful career. Her banking experience spans over 35 […]

During a meeting between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lankan authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday (11), the IMF congratulated the country on completing the first review under its program. The IMF highlighted the positive start of the program, recognizing the challenging reforms undertaken by Sri Lanka and their significant impact on the […]

By Ifham Nizam Sri Lanka has made commendable strides towards fiscal discipline, particularly in the area of controlling government spending and managing inflation, Rockefeller International chairman and founder and CIO, Breakout Capital Ruchir Sharma said. Sharma was speaking at a special public lecture in Colombo recently, organized by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. At […]

Economists expect Sri Lanka s central bank to pause now but resume its rate cut cycle in the second quarter of this year to bolster the island nation s recovery after an unprecedented crisis.

By Sanath Nanayakkare When a country is in an economic crisis, it creates an environment conducive to implementing economic reforms which would be difficult to do in good times, however, it still depends on how far the reformist leaders can shape the opinion of the people and the people’s

By DEVENDRA SAKSENA Currently, the words ‘debt trap’ have a distinctly Chinese connotation. According to the Western press, the Chinese, as part of their geostrategy, have inveigled poor nations into borrowing huge amounts from them for fanciful infrastructural projects; almost all borrower countries are in dire economic straits, because most such projects are lying incomplete, […]

by Neville Ladduwahetty What Sri Lanka has achieved since it declared itself insolvent is hailed by some with much optimism. The “relative stability” currently experienced is presented by the Governor of the Central Bank “as the outcome of a united effort from the outset” (The Island, December 26, 2023). The focus of that collaborative effort […]

Today, the collective misery we experience as a society has nothing positive to show for the promotion of the so-called ‘positive thinking’, which encourages us to rise individually, and not collectively as people. Positive thinkers, who are dime a dozen, flourish in market-oriented, consumerist societies where ill-mannered rulers and their business cronies feed on millions […]

The strained balance sheets of the household and the corporate sectors in the backdrop of the severe economic crisis which resulted in an erosion of real income levels amid elevated price levels, hindered the debt repayment capacities of households and corporates, the Central Bank

Wijeyadasa pushes for suspension of Parate executions: ‘Country paying heavy price for not having proper tax regime, favourable treatment to some’ By Shamindra Ferdinando Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, has assured the local business community, troubled by parate executions, that laws will be brought in to regulate the practice. The [̷...

Banks exercise their legally-enshrined right to Parate Execution as a last resort and the overarching objective is the protection of depositors’ funds that have been lent to borrowers, the Sri Lanka Banks Association (SLBA) has said in a statement to the media. Responding to what it termed as lobbying by a group of defaulting borrowers […]

In actual fact the foundation for the current economic chaos was laid under the Yahapalana rule when they borrowed as much as USD 12 billion from the international bond market, at high interest rates, with them not even undertaking any developmental works, like the Rajapaksas, or, for that matter, any worthwhile economic activity. We certainly […]

[An article based on the Keynote Address delivered by Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, recently at the Annual Research Symposium 2023 of the University of Colombo] Introduction Inflation affects every aspect of our lives; it is a force that shapes our purchasing power, influences our financial decisions, and […]