Sri Lanka’s service exporters, including resident Sri Lankans, who receive their earnings in foreign currencies through the banking channels, have started to protest against the conversions of their foreign currency earnings by banks, under the new

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa yesterday said the government wouldn’t soften the strict austerity measures announced in the Budget 2022, which includes a freeze on new public sector recruitments, and stressed that the government is in no position

The foreign exchange reserves held by the Central Bank has touched a fresh low in November after continuously falling for last three months, on account of foreign currency obligations, which came up for retirement, stoking serious concerns over the a

The Economist ranked the Sri Lankan economy among the most vulnerable nations to the change in monetary policy by the United States (US) Federal Reserve next year, a move which could tighten liquidity conditions for emerging markets and the broader d

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal sees a rare silver lining for the country to transform its external sector and the debt profile to a much resilient and sustainable position, with the unique approach taken by the government to emerge out of

The Central Bank (CB) plans to restore official worker remittance inflows by clamping down on unofficial money transmission channels such as ‘Hawala’ and ‘Undiyal’ systems while offering a special incentive package to Sri Lankan expatriates t

Capitalising on India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, during his recent visit to New Delhi, firmed up the need for cooperation in four key areas that would help the island ease the hiccups it faces at present.

Bringing a blockbuster earnings season to a close, Sri Lanka’s listed companies have delivered robust earnings for the quarter ended in September 2021 indicating that big corporates have largely built resilience and have acclimatised with the new e

The Central Bank says it would end the year with over US $ 3.5 billion in foreign exchange reserves, recouping from the recent depths they fell in September and October, as several bilateral funding lines are expected to be realised while the collect

Sri Lanka’s fiscal deficit expanded to over Rs.1.12 trillion in the first eight months in 2021 compared to about Rs.975 billion in the same period last year, as the pandemic and its prolonged lockdowns deprived the government of its revenues, while

The worker remittance inflows to Sri Lanka is estimated to decline by 6.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) to pre-pandemic levels of US $ 6.7 billion this year while the outlook for 2022 remains largely uncertain, according to the World Bank (WB).

Reinforcing customer-centricity in providing excellent services, SLT-Mobitel Mobile has become the first in Asia to receive the international ISO 18295-1:2017 quality standard for its Customer Contact Centre (CCC) operations recently. Additionally, S

In yet another progressive step bringing about a giant leap within the Sri Lankan education domain and marking a first in the country, Dialog Enterprise introduced Convergence Tech Identity (CTI), a revolutionary digital education credentials service

Shrugging off concerns raised by certain parties in recent times over the country’s ability to meet its foreign currency debt obligations falling due next year, the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said the provisions had already been mad

A national consensus backed by a common minimum programme, which should be implemented by an independent team of experts, is mooted for Sri Lanka to overcome a potential sovereign default next year.

Capping weeks of expectations for a rate hike by certain quarters, the Central Bank decided to maintain the current monetary policy unchanged this week in a sign of bias towards supporting the recovery of the economy beset by the pandemic and told th

Insurance companies could see some near-term pressure on their top lines and thereby their earnings, from the proposed new taxes on the corporates in Budget 2022 but they are unlikely to hurt their capitalisation levels, which strengthened during the

While Sri Lanka had made progress in bringing its official jobless rate down, the issues facing the workers appear to run deeper as many who lost their employment due to the pandemic-induced economic restrictions appear to have given up looking for w

The weekly Averaged Weighted Prime Lending Rate (AWPLR) eclipsed the 8.0 percent level last week, signalling that the present upturn in the market lending rates has more room to run its course, on the back of the prolonged shortages in the rupee and

The proposed ban on importation of rubber-based products and the parallel promotion of investments into local production of rubber related finished goods may not yield the desired results as the country is already scrambling to meet the demand for na

Sri Lanka’s sector recorded an all-time high earning for any October in the country’s export history, with October 2021 fetching a revenue of US $ 1.16 billion.

In an apparent attempt taken at dovetailing the fiscal policy for next year with the monetary policy, which is increasingly getting skewed towards more tightening with foreign exchange challenges and inflationary pressures, the budget presented last

In the absence of policy guidance, the government has failed miserably to build up its foreign reverses in contrast to other South Asian governments, which have beefed up reserves to meet the external challenges, a senior Opposition lawmaker charged.

Experts in tax and businesses on Monday attempted to come into grips with the proposed Social Security Contribution in the budget presented last week as the broad-based application could lead to enormous damage to several crucial sections of business

Sri Lanka’s trade deficit declined for the first time in six months on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in September to US $ 495 million, from US $ 525 million a year ago, as export income continued to grow in the month while import expenditure remained

The one time surcharge tax imposed retrospectively on individuals and companies from the budget 2022 immediately ignited debate to make it the hot button issue among private sector stakeholders due to its violation of basic tax principles such as equ

Sri Lanka expects to reduce its fiscal deficit to 8.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, down from the estimated 11.1 percent deficit in 2021, as the maiden budget of Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa looked to cut expenses and intro

The Central Bank and the commercial banks gave the government Rs.110 billion in September on a net basis, little lower than what the government borrowed a month ago as the debate is raging if the liquidity injections by the Central Bank to the govern

The Central Bank yesterday said that plans are afoot to incentivise the Sri Lankan expatriates who ensure their remittances enter the country through formal channels, so that both the migrant workers and national economy can reap the benefits of a wi

Sri Lanka is confident it can replicate policies of the most advanced digital economy in East Asia, China, in its journey towards digital transformation, but challenges remain in incorporating the learnings into the national policy framework.