by Jayasri Priyalal Jayasripriyalal59@gmail.com The greatest challenges confronting the nation-states in the current era revolve around; deplorable debt, depleted natural resources, and degraded environment. Economic growth and future prosperity for all living beings are stalled due to the varying degrees of the 3D problems emerging out of ill-conceived policy divergences propelling the linear eco...

The Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) has approved, subject to conditions, the Recovery of Loans by Banks (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Bill which was amended to facilitate legal provisions for the suspension of Parate Law until December 15 2024. Accordingly, the banks’ practice of acquiring properties of whose loans are yet to be paid off will […]

Sri Lanka s gross official reserves (GOR) stood at USD 5 billion by the end of March 2024, recording a notable increase compared to USD 4.4 billion at the end of 2023.

Thursday 2nd May, 2024 The police have embarked on a campaign, parallel to their war on drugs, to clear busy intersections of beggars who solicit alms near traffic lights, causing much inconvenience to motorists. Scores of beggars have already been arrested and hauled up before courts for doing so, we are told. Sri Lankans drive […]

Over the last few decades China has not only become Africa’s largest trading partner, but is its biggest bilateral lender. In the last 15 years, trade between China and African nations reached $282.1 billion (in 2023). Out of these numbers, most of the exports to China were supplied by South Africa, Angola and the Democratic […]

Cash-strapped Pakistan is poised to receive a $1.1bn loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after a key meeting of the international lender’s executive board on Monday, even as economists have warned that the country needs deep reforms to reduce its dependence on overseas financial assistance. Late on Monday night, Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance […]

The Annual Economic Review and Financial Statements and Operations of the Central Bank for the Year 2023 points out that backtracking from the implemented and planned critical reforms will tip the economy to a state of instability. Thus, continuing with the broader political and social consensus on economic reforms will be critical to avoid recurring […]

The stock market serves as a nexus where millions of buyers and sellers converge to engage in transactions. At its core, each transaction represents an agreement between a buyer and a seller, with the central element being the price. This price is not static; it fluctuates continuously, reflecting the equilibrium between supply and demand. The […]

The chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), Dilshan Wirasekera, discusses opportunities for capital raising and the stock market outlook for 2024 in the following interview: Give us an overview of the current market landscape and discuss the CSE’s overall outlook for the year 2024. We believe the overall outlook of the CSE, for the […]

ECONOMYNEXT –The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm emphasized the importance of the private sector engagement in the recovery of the crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s economic growth. Riccardo Puliti, the IFC’s Vice President for Asia and the Pacific said this when he met State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe and the island nation’s Central […]

As a collective body of exporters, we have been at the forefront of sustaining employment and ensuring a steady flow of foreign exchange, even amidst the most severe economic downturns faced by our nation. Our membership covers the majority of merchandise exports, which account for some 13% of Sri Lanka’s GDP. Today, we stand united […]

Apropos our news items (in The Island of 18 April) “Australia-based doc alleges her flat illegally occupied by diplomatic mission employee”, the High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Colombo has sent us the following response: “We draw your kind attention to the publication of the news item titled “Australia-based doc alleges her […]