Minister Gunawardana justifies transferring expressways to a state-owned investment company to operate them as a “commercial enterprise” by arguing that: (a) Sri Lanka has borrowed LKR 800 billion in foreign loans to construct these expressways, and (b) it would take 160 years to repay the loans with the current annual profits (of LKR 5 billion). To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the Road Development Authority (RDA) Annual Report of 20
MP Rajapaksa claims that during his tenure as president (2005-2014), there was an (1) unbroken nine-year economic boom, and (2) there was no difficulty in paying off debts. To verify these claims, FactCheck.lk consulted data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and Ministry of Finance annual reports, IMF world economic outlook 2024 and IMF staff report 2009. Claim (1): An ‘economic boom’ might be understood broadly as a consistent period
In parliament, MP Lakshman Kiriella claimed that (a) no country has taken as long as Sri Lanka (2.5 years) to complete the debt restructuring process, and (b) every country completed it within 1.5 years. To verify this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the most comprehensive dataset on Debt Restructuring Episodes (associated with a paper by Christoph Trebesch) and the updates to it by Verité Research.
In parliament, MP Rohana Bandara argued that the president’s futuristic claims were unrealistic and seemed to lack practical feasibility. Among his examples to further his argument, he stated that the government had failed to fulfill 94% of the budget presented ‘in 2023’. FactCheck.lk interprets his statement as referring to budget presented for 2023. The only public source evaluating budget implementation in Sri Lanka is the Budget Promises Das
In a parliamentary speech, MP Ashok Abeysinghe claimed that 237,143 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) closed between 2020 and 2022 due to the economic crisis. This statement was made in the broader context of debates around micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Addressing parliament, MP Hesha Withanage claimed that the losses accumulated by SriLankan Airlines (SLA) amounted to Rs. 609 billion, which in turn placed an average financial burden of Rs. 107,000 per family in the country. To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the SriLankan Airlines Annual Report 2022/2023 (SLAAR) and the Household Income and Expenditure Survey
President’s Advisor Sunanda Madduma Bandara stated that Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate reduced from a high of 5.5% in 2020 (highest since 2009) to 4.7% in 2023—and attributed it to government policy success. To verify the claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the 2023 Annual Economic Review of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The stated figures align with the unemployment statistics: 5.5% in 2020 was the highest unemployment rate since 2009, and the
MP Ranawaka claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that Sri Lanka has borrowed more than it has repaid, citing USD 3 billion in new loans and USD 2 billion in repayments. FactCheck.lk understands his claim, as cited in his X thread, to refer to the period after the country’s April 2022 default on external debt (‘post-default’ period). To check this claim, FactCheck.lk reviewed the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) statistical tables on its website, the C
In his speech, MP Pasqual argues that only a small fraction (10%) of students have the opportunity to attend university and that everybody else, after completing school, is “left to drift aimlessly.” FactCheck.lk interprets the MP’s larger claim to refer to making a case for more state universities. This fact-check focuses on the statistics cited and the argument made by the MP to support his claim. There may be other arguments in support of his
In parliament, MP Vijitha Herath made two claims about expenditure allocations related to the president: (1) the budget line item titled president’s expenditure head (to discharge duties as the head of state) has increased to LKR 3,779 million, and (2) seven ministries headed by the president have been allocated 66.7% of the total budget expenditure. To verify the MP’s claim, FactCheck.lk referred to the draft Budget Estimates for 2024 (which wer
The MP argued at a press conference that Sri Lanka’s tax policies don’t take adequate account of the huge inequality existing among Sri Lankan citizens, when designing the distribution of the tax burden. In support of this larger argument, he provided the above statistics highlighting inequality. To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the World Inequality Database (WID) and the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) by the UNDP. The most recen
This claim by the State Minister Siyambalapitya was reported differently in the press. However, FactCheck.lk evaluated only his associated social media post. He can be understood as claiming that 4 million individuals will be receiving monthly payments from the government in 2024. He bases this figure on two groups: (i) 2 million who are government employees or pensioners,
In his statement, the MP claims that Sri Lanka’s debt-to-GDP ratio reduced from 90% at the end of 2005 to 69% by the end of 2014. To check this claim, FactCheck.lk referred to the Annual Reports of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the Ministry of Finance. The accounti
MP Alawathuwala claims that the food expenses have tripled from 2019 to 2023, increasing from LKR6,000-6,500 to LKR 16,000-17,000. To verify the above claims, FactCheck.lk referred to multiple publications of the Department of Census and Statistics: (1) Price index data on the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) and National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), (2) Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). The MP indicates that the range of values
In his speech, the MP sets out a standard monetary poverty measure of the World Bank as 25% of the Sri Lankan population; and argues that when multidimensional factors such as education and health are considered, the poverty level is much greater. He cites multidimensional poverty as 56% of the population. To check this claim
MP Dissanayake claimed that debt had increased to unprecedented levels during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as prime minister (PM) from 2015 to 2019. In support of his argument, the MP cited that between 2015 and 2020, debt had increased by LKR 6.5 trillion to LKR 15 trillion (a 76.5% increase). To verify these claims, FactCheck.lk consulted the 2022 CBSL Annual Report. FactCheck.
In a parliamentary speech, the MP made two claims: (1) exports have decreased by 19.5%, and (2) the industrial sector has collapsed by 23.4% in the first quarter of 2023. To verify these claims, FactCheck.lk consulted the export and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics provided by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). On claim 1: The MP does n
The statement in question was part of a longer parliamentary speech discussing the Betting and Gaming Levy (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2023 (BGL23). State Minister Siyambalapitiya argued that policymakers had made amendments to the taxation of casinos with the aim of increasing revenue collection and decreasing local participation. In this part of the statement, he claims: (1) a US
To check the MP’s claim, FactCheck.lk consulted Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Health Organisation (WHO) 2022 report and the Global Health Security (GHS) Index developed by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The Health at a Glance (H
The MP made three claims regarding low female labour force participation in Sri Lanka: (1) official statistics on contribution to the labour force underestimate women’s contribution to work by not taking account of unpaid work; (2) 60% of unpaid, caregiving work is done by women, and (3) women already work more hours in a day (14 hours) than men (9 hours). To evaluate these cl
The MP in his statement claims that (1) CBSL maintains both the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) of private and semi-government sector workers and a separate provident fund for its employees; and (2) the CBSL Provident Fund (CBSLP
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