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 […]

The World Bank forecasts the Sri Lankan economy to grow by 1.7 percent in 2024 and by 2.4 percent in 2025, according to its report on global economic prospects made available to the local press on Wednesday.

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 willingness to take those reforms on […]

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, […]

ECONOMYNEXT –Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe urged the public to become informants to broaden the tax net and thus reduce both overall direct and indirect taxes. The government has raised Value Added Tax (VAT), an indirect tax to 18 percent from 15 percent with effect from January 1. The move also will see some VAT […]

‘Parliament amended law to favour tax defaulters, with defaulter being able to drag appealing process for 15 years’ By Shamindra Ferdinando Chairman of Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Economic and Physical Plans Mahindananda Aluthgamage yesterday (05) said that he intended to utilise Anti-Corruption Act No 09 of 2023 against top government revenue officials who neglected […]

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 […]

Turmoil in China’s housing market, coupled with weak consumer sentiment, is weighing on the nation’s economy. Once the country’s largest property developer, Evergrande is now facing a lawsuit that may end with its liquidation, while Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest mall

by Sivamohan Sumathy And I wish to speak of a poet here. Kurinjith Thennavan is an auto-didact. He did not learn to become a writer in our schools or university. He is a worker. He was shut out of our free education mandate even as he and others like him were enabling it. He was […]

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 said in its Financial Stability Review for the Year 2023. Households […]

The banking sector has recovered less than 0.5% of total loans with the help of Parate execution, the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Friday (29) at a press conference in Colombo. Dr. Weerasinghe said that a previous Supreme Court decision had prevented banks from using Parate laws […]

by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana Reading “From heyday to ‘hay day’”, the hard-hitting editorial laced with sarcasm (The Island, 18 December) and “Declining power and challenges before SLPP” by Shamindra Ferdinando in the Midweek Review of 20th December, I began wondering whether the recently concluded SLPP convention was the final flicker before the flame was extinguished […...

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 […]

The Inland Revenue Department yesterday (21) issued the list of goods and services that would be exempted from the enhanced Value Added Tax (VAT) regime that comes into effect from 01 January 2024. The list of items included Wheat and wheat flour; infant milk powder; Pharmaceutical Products and Drugs (other than cosmetics) whose end use […]