Govt. to present 2021 budget on Nov. 17

The government has scheduled to present the budget for the year 2021 in Parliament on November 17 this year, Treasury Secretary S.R.Atygalle told media today.

State Minister of Finance, Capital Market and Public Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivaard Cabraal told a news conference last morning at the Finance Ministry that Moody's rating downgrade fails to recognize and do justice to the ground reality of the ongoing rapid economic recovery backed by vastly improved business confidence arising from the return of political and policy stability after a lapse of five years in Sri Lanka.

He charged the global credit rating agency has unreasonably and in a bias manner, downgraded Sri Lanka’s credit rating without analyzing the ground realities of the national economy, mainly in the successful fight against COVID-19 pandemic and economic reforms introduced by the new government.

Commenting on Moody's Investors Service’s downgrading of Sri Lanka's sovereign rating by two notches from CAA 1 to B2 on Monday, citing the alleged budget deficits, slow reforms and weak institutions, Cabraal said.

“Moody's Ratings Downgrading of Sri Lanka is unwarranted, erroneous and suggests reckless reaction in the market,” he further stressed.

Sri Lanka has been able to decisively deal with the domestic spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, for which the country was hailed as one of the few countries in the world to have been able to do so, he said.

Even during the island-wide lockdown from mid-March to mid-May, Agriculture activities, financial sector, as well as industrial zones continued operations. Sri Lanka opened out all other services and industries from May 2020, he added.(Sandun A. Jayasekera)