The BIMSTEC, officially known as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, held its first-ever military exercise in September 2018, in Pune, India. The transnational exercise aimed to boost inter-operability

As countries in developing Asia work to meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, governments must figure out how to come up with the money to fund their commitments.   

Over the last few years, both economic and historical ties between Sri Lanka and China have grown with China becoming a significant economic partner of Sri Lanka. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is at the centre of this. The Chinese government has

On the night of October 26, most Sri Lankans were taken by surprise when President Maithripala Sirisena named his former leader and later political foe Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister.   

Droughts, floods, landslides, and cyclones have frequented the Sri Lankan newspapers in 2018.   

“We must not return to the age of great power rivalries. Asia in rivalry will hold us back; Asia in cooperation will shape the century,” said Deputy National Security Adviser of India Pankaj Saran, at The Indian Ocean: Defining our Future

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka this week released its half yearly publication titeld: “Recent Economic Developments: Highlights of 2018 and Prospects for 2019”.    

By According to Article 3 of our Constitution, sovereignty is in the people. In terms of Article 30(2) of the 19th Amendment, the president is elected by the people of the entire country. The president is the Head of the state, head of the government

The great achievements of the 20th century in the demographic sector are increment of longevity, reducing infant mortality, an increment of life expectancy and decreased fertility rates, through medical science. However, this has caused to make an im

Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera wrapped up the 2018 budget debate promising to end the country’s ‘nanny state’ approach and expressed his determination to press ahead with radical liberalization.   

Chinese private security companies (PSCs) are increasingly going global. Not so long ago they focussed mostly on providing bodyguard services for China’s rich and famous and guarding facilities in China. But now, China’s growing global fo

Sri Lanka’s Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), a retirement fund of the private sector workers managed by the state, is about to re-enter the stock market, ending several years of inactivity, after it came under fire for being a dumping gro

Three days before U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping portrayed Beijing as the champion and defender of globalisation at the Davos World Economic Forum amid rising fears of trade protectionism.  

In response to my article regarding the government and Central Bank abdicating their duty to support the rupee, the Central Bank, by its statement of October 10, 2018, has gone to embarrassing lengths to downplay its current inability to defend the r

The All Share Price Index (ASPI) decreased eight points or 0.14 percent to 5872 on Wednesday, October 10, from 5880 in the previous trading session and on Thursday, down to 5840. 

The Invest Sri Lanka capital market road show organised by the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in association with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) concluded on a

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) is making the following statement in relation to the article titled “Rupee depreciation shows abdication of vital statutory duty by CB, Govt”, authored by former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabr

The government gets set to unravel its fiscal policy plan for 2019 at a crucial juncture in time, as on the one hand it prepares for the much-anticipated elections at the end of next year and on the other, the Sri Lankan economy is under immense scru

Global finance and reserve bank chiefs will gather this week in Bali, Indonesia, for the annual gathering of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, amid the rising concern over trade war and risks of global economic crisis. Finance and

As per the Monetary Law Act (MLA), it is a statutory duty of the Central Bank is to maintain “economic and price stability”. In so doing, the MLA requires the Monetary Board “to maintain the international stability of the Sri Lanka

It  was reported in the local  news media  on October 7,  2018 that Sri Lanka will host a regional conference on the future of the Indian Ocean on October 11, 2018, which is expected to bring together countries that surround the t

Be it chief executives, managing directors or heads of organisations or departments, instead of managing, one should always focus on leading their organisations with a sense of openness and retaining humility, N-able Managing Director and Chief Exe

In global economic growth, divergence across economies is widening. The US keeps posting robust expansion, with a whopping 4.2 percent of annualized quarter-on-quarter growth in 2Q 2018, the fastest since 3Q 2014. While Japan’s expansion picked

The rising demand and an accelerating population shift to major urban centres are driving activity in Sri Lanka’s retail sector, with a series of large-scale developments to launch in the coming months; however, the recent pressures on domestic

The Sri Lankan Rupee in the last eight weeks has taken a beating like many other Asian currencies as a result of the dollar rally.  The government rightly pointed out that many of the other currencies had taken a bigger beating. This week the ru

In a move that heralds greater bilateral cooperation, Chinese Defence Minister Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe paid his first visit to India in  August 2018. 

The Sri Lankan currency (LKR) has weakened against the US dollar in 2018 (9.4 percent as at September 26, 2018) with close to 4 percent of the depreciation being recorded in the last two weeks. Currencies like the Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah and

The stock market is a place where investors with different knowledge and experience levels gather and take their investment decisions for their best interests. 

Sri Lanka has a long history of coping with weather impacts.    About two thousand years ago, the country built one of the world’s first irrigation systems to control its water supply.

The rupee depreciated by Rs.29 from 2005 to 2014 and the average year-on-year (YoY) depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee was 2.8 percent per year. The official foreign reserves increased from US $ 2.7 billion to US $ 8.2 billion over the same period.