Bangkok:External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that the relationship between India and China is going through an “extremely difficult phase” after what Beijing has done at the border and emphasised that the Asian Century will not happen if the two neighbours could not join hands. Jaishankar made the remarks while responding to a […]

By Gwynne Dyer “This obviously does not happen because of a thrown butt,” said British Defense Minister Ben Wallace. But the Russian Ministry of Defence insisted that the explosions that destroyed at least eight warplanes at Saki Air Base in Russian-occupied Crimea on 9 August were due to “a violation of fire safety requirements.” The […]

” Sri Lanka cannot do without IMF’s support. Having declared its inability to service its foreign debt, Sri Lanka is struggling to reach a consensus with lenders and the IMF. Two of Sri Lanka’s major creditors, India and China, locked horns over a port visit by a Chinese ship. Sri Lanka should be wary of […]

“Fuel price revisions will take place again on September 01,” the ministry official said on Tuesday August 16.

Yes, of course, the older folks would all remember Edward Joseph; the young ones may find the name unfamiliar as Edward now lives in Germany and does his thing in that part of the world. Better known as Eddy, he was with the leader of the group Steelers and they were big in the local […]

The World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking donor support to reach 3.4 million people in Sri Lanka with food and nutrition assistance as nearly a quarter of Sri Lanka is facing food shortages for millions.Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence is spinning off a “serious food crisis,” says the World Food Programme Representative and […]

After the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy, attention has turned to the state of affairs in other South Asian countries such as Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. All three countries have either curtailed imports or are planning to do so, to salvage their fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves and avoid a Lanka-like forex crisis. While the […]

by Chandre Dharmawardana, chandre.dharma@yahoo.ca. The forex crisis had forced the government to jettison its initial set of economic managers of the Central bank who looked for home-grown solutions and opposed dealing with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The President re-instated a set of managers whose ideas were more orthodox and aligned with the neo-liberal bankers […]

Calls for unity in a country torn apart by nationalism and monetary instability

By Kalinga Tudor Silva One of the important ways, the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka has directly impacted our lives is having to go through long and seeming unending queues, to access petrol, diesel, kerosene and even our dear passports. Queues have multiplied, sprung up on either side of the road and across the […]

AL Jazeera) Some Asian central banks must rapidly raise interest rates to prevent an “upward spiral” in inflation as the war in Ukraine drives surging fuel and food prices, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has said. While inflation in Asia remains “moderate” compared with other regions, several economies will have to act quickly to […]

The world has just been given a grim reminder of the mind-numbing costs of legitimate political dissent against state repression in Myanmar. The country’s military rulers have had no qualms about executing four pro-democracy activists, including well known political activist Kyaw Min Yu and former legislator Pho Zayar Thaw. Besides being made to witness absolute […]

Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka housed ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa following the recent crisis, until he was forced to flee the country entirely. That continues a trend of the city, and especially its strategic deep-sea port, being in the news for all the wrong reasons. In 2017, when Sri Lanka found itself struggling to make […]

Global un-employment set to rise

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says Sri Lanka’s growth is forecast to contract by 7.6% in 2022 and economic activity will remain subdued in 2023.In its latest Asian Development Outlook Supplement, the ADB said the island nation is beset with multifaceted and deepening challenges emanating from long-standing fiscal and current account deficits that have led to […]