With the recent relaxing of the rupee exchange rate and subsequent increase in fuel prices, trade unions and the opposition parties are conducting protest campaigns against the Government, demanding a reduction in oil prices and the cost of living. This article investigates the living conditions of citizens in the recent past and present, quality and ...

High cost of living and festive seasons go hand in hand and the upcoming New Year looks set to becoming a particularly difficult one. With the Central Bank downgrading the economic forecast from eight per cent to 7.2 per cent and a rapidly depreciating rupee adding to increasing imports, the month of April, when consumerism ...

Tyranny of the international capital markets Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, ex-Central Banker and International Civil Servant, did not mince words when he addressed the country’s exporters last week. The veteran economist, having made an assessment of the risks associated with Sri Lanka’s external sector crisis, warned that the country will have to grapple with “the tyranny ...

The Visible Hand of the government ‘The Visible Hand’ was the title which the famed London-based economics weekly, The Economist, used when it published a special report in its issue on 21 January 2012 on the rise of state capitalism in the modern era. The title has a pun: The governments do not care to ...

By Kusal Perera Groundviews.org: The media these few days, especially the English media, provides unusually high anti government coverage to the government’s latest move to push through a bill, classified as urgent. Titled “Revival of the Underperforming and Underutilised Assets Bill,” it sent many stories spinning round Colombo circles. More politically savvy circles talked abou...

A reader of My View on popular fallacies of currency appreciation published in the previous few weeks has directed a series of questions to me. What is Central Bank’s mandate? Should it just target to stabilise the domestic prices? Or should it try to maintain stability in the exchange rate? Or should it work for ...

The Maldivian administration’s key economic strategy is to engage the private sector and enable the diversification of the economy for sustainable development, said Mahmood Razee, Minister of Economic Development in the Republic of Maldives who was in the country to attend the fourth Annual

Maldivian government is inviting Sri Lankan firms to invest in that country. This invitation was made when the Minister of Economic Development of Maldives Mahmood Razee was in Sri Lanka recently. He was in the country to attend the AGM of the Sri Lanka Maldives Bilateral Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Razee addressing the members ...

Last week I had the privilege of delivering a keynote address at an annual sales and marketing conference of one of the largest multinational companies in the country, which recorded a turnover of around Rs. 65 billion and a contribution of 1.5% of GDP to Sri Lanka. The event gave me amazing insights that motivated ...

By Cheranka Mendis Sri Lanka’s general education system needs to up their game before long if the country is to achieve the status of knowledge hub in the economic development plans to be laid out by the Government by 2015. The system, which runs on low investment and infrastructure, questionable quality teaching and varied issues ...

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s stock market fell for a third session to a more-than six-week low on Thursday, following Asian peers on a gloomy global economic outlook, a local liquidity shortage and forced selling to meet margin debt reductions. The island nation’s main share index closed 0.45 per cent or 30.50 points weaker at 6,762.38, its ...

Last week, media were abuzz with two reports on how undesired exchange rate movements could worry governments. One was a currency under pressure for appreciation in the market and the other was a currency moving in the opposite. Swiss Franc: One way Journey to Appreciation The first was the case of the Swiss Franc which ...

By Amantha Perera (IPS): As paddy cultivation revives in Sri Lanka’s former war zones, prospects for the island’s food security have improved dramatically. Experts say the extra capacity will not only make up for shortages of the country’s staple caused by the twin floods that hit the eastern and central regions this year, but actually ...

By Devin Jayasundera A top Finance Ministry official last week declared that the country’s import sector has bright opportunities on to the future in tandem with fast growing economy and per capita income of the people. Delivering the keynote address at the Ceylon Chamber Import Section

United National Party Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim who once served as a mediator between the two fractions now says it is the responsibility of the three leaders to take the party cadre out of the mess they themselves created. Hashim asserts that leaders should be able to resolve the leadership crisis amongst themselves without pushing the ...

Sri Lanka’s cement industry, trade, standard and import inspection schemeOrdinary Portland Cement (OPC), commonly known as cement, is once again dominates headlines of the Sri Lankan print and electronic media due to its preserved or real temporary shortage of supply in the domestic market. The media attributes the supply shortage to the variety of factors. ...

By Dr. O.G Dayaratna-Banda Department of Economics and Statistics University of Peradeniya Adoring the discarded neo-liberalism The Secretary to the Treasury of Sri Lanka has seemingly informed the Vice Chancellors of the Universities at a meeting held at the UGC that the “increase of the salaries of university academics or any other public sector workers ...

By Dinouk Colombage As the unnatural weather conditions continue to wreak havoc, governments around the world are preparing to ‘tighten the belt’ as food prices are expected to soar as food levels drop. The floods in Australia, the prolonged snowstorms in Europe and the United States, and the potential drought in China, have all contributed ...

By Dr. S. Narapalasingam PART I The baffling moves and actions on the political front of the potent government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since the war ended conclusively mid May 2009 have been considered discretely by many analysts, ignoring...

By Chakaravarthy "Four hundred rupees” said he. I was shocked. I could remember the days he charged twenty five rupees decades ago and later hundred rupees for a long time. So I wondered whether the money has lost value or...

His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith addressing the Presidential Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation on 03rd November 2010 at theLakshman Kadiragama Hall, made the following submissions to the Commission. pic courtesy of: archdioceseofcolombo.com “First of all, I would like to...

by Dr M.A. Mohamed Saleem Sri Lankan conflict that spanned over three decades causing several thousands dead, massive disruption of social order, and destruction to economic capacities and infrastructure may take many years to rebuild. Sri Lanka has been a...

By GABRIELLA STERN NEW YORK -- Sri Lanka's president said Wednesday that rising labor costs in China present an opportunity for his South Asian country to attract foreign companies seeking an alternative low-cost manufacturing base....

Wayamba Elevens are set to take the Champions League T20 by storm with a strong backing from Indian Companies as their sponsors

By M.Sooriasegaram The proposed Nallur Hotel in Jaffna by the Mercantile Bank of Sri Lanka has sparked off a public debate. At a public consultative meeting organized by the Mayor of Jaffna several weeks ago, Minister Douglas Devananda, who chaired...

by Ravi Gee I was in Srilanka a fortnight ago for the first time. I travelled to Southern towns Kandy, Bentota and Colombo by road. I would like to share my observations, a mix of positives and negatives as below....