The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $100 million loan to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka more access to finance and build their resilience to external shocks, such as the economic crisis and climate change.

Saturday 16th March, 2024 Sri Lankan governments do not respond to early warnings and thereby invite trouble. The Easter Sunday carnage (2019) could have been prevented if the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government had heeded repeated intelligence warnings of impending terror attacks. It let the grass grow under its feet, and disaster struck. It has now been revealed […]

Friday 15th March, 2024 The JVP turned down President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s invitation to a meeting with the IMF, but some of its senior members met a visiting IMF delegation yesterday in Colombo perhaps as part of its strategy to gain political mileage. Whoever would have thought, a decade or so ago, that the JVP leaders […]

Peter Breuer, Chief of IMF Mission to Sri Lanka has claimed that the Sri Lankan economy is showing signs of progress. The monetary and fiscal measures like tax increases and particularly the debt moratorium may have resulted in giving some breathing space for the country to recover from the period of extreme hardship caused by […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty During President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s India visit in July 2023, five Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) were signed by India and Sri Lanka to establish physical connections between the two countries. This was followed more recently by the launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – a mechanism that claims to reduce the cost […]

… asks for reappraisal of pay structure CB never opposed pay hikes for anyone: Governor By Shamindra Ferdinando Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) Dr. Harsha de Silva on Tuesday (05) said what was at issue was the sheer size of salary increase granted to Central Bank (CB) employees. The SJB lawmaker said […]

The gross salary of the lowest ranking employee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), an Office Assistant – Grade 1, has been increased by 29.53% up to Rs. 188,827 in accordance with a collective agreement, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardane told Parliament yesterday. Responding to a question by SJB Colombo District MP S. M. […]

Pakistan must navigate challenges in the finance sector by diversifying its economic alliances, reducing dependence on singular partners, and negotiating funding arrangements that align with its long-term developmental objectives. The road ahead demands astute diplomatic manoeuvring, a commitment to economic resilience, and a proactive approach to curb corruption and inefficiencies of the Pakistan...

Monday 04th March, 2024 The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) is drawing heavy flak for having granted its workers generous pay hikes amidst a crippling economic crisis. Its critics are arguing that such salary increases, allegedly ranging from 29% to 70%, should not have been given at a time

‘New laws needed to rein them in’ By Shamindra Ferdinando Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, said that contrary to the Constitution, the Parliament didn’t exercise full control over public finance.The former President of the Bar Association said a new law was required to subject all state enterprises to parliamentary control to prevent further deterioration […]

the Impact of the Economic Crisis. The overestimation is around Rs 140 billion, […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando With the presidential election scheduled for later this year, political parties represented in Parliament have stepped up efforts to forge alliances. In terms of the Constitution, presidential elections will have to be conducted between Sept 18 and Oct 18, 2024. The last presidential election was held in Nov 2019. Even though the […]

We, the Central Bank Executive Officers’ Union (CBEOU), as a professional union representing the Executive Officers of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, wish to clarify some facts, as it was evident that the discourse on the recent salary revision of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is extremely partial and raised without proper knowledge […]

ECONOMYNEXT –The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects Sri Lanka not to reverse its International Monetary Fund-led policy reforms despite elections soon, the ADB Country Director for Sri Lanka Takafumi Kadono said. The island nation has witnessed repeated reversals of policy reforms in the past due to greedy politicians who misled  the people to vote for […]

A culture-based local solution for Sri Lanka BY Prof Nimal Gunatilleke The Thirty-seventh Session of the UN-FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) is being held as a high-level Ministerial in-person event in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 19 – 22 February 2024. This was preceded by the Senior Officers Meeting (SOM) held virtually […]

Sri Lanka s inflation is expected to return to the government s 5% target starting from the last two quarters of the year, a Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) official said on Wednesday, as the economy stabilises from a crippling financial crisis.