Tag: Lankas

Sri Lanka’s Parliament approves IMF bailout package

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Friday approved the much-needed USD 3 billion IMF bailout package to revive the island’s economy which was hit hard by a catastrophic economic and humanitarian crisis sparked by years of mismanagement and the raging pandemic.
Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the bailout programme to help Sri Lanka overcome its economic crisis and catalyse financial support from other development partners, a move welcomed by Colombo as a “historic milestone” in the critical period.
On Friday, at the end of a 3-day debate, 120 Members of Parliament in the 225-member assembly voted in its favour of the deal while 25 of them opposed it.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament that the parliamentary approval was a necessity as his government was embarking on a serious economic reform programme.
Wickremesinghe, also the finance minister, in his Parliamentary address said it was critical for economic recovery to stabilise the economy, restore debt sustainability and build an inclusive and prosperous country.
The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) members who accused the government of lack of transparency in obtaining the facility were not present when the vote was taken in the House.
Having obtained the USD 3 billion facility, Sri Lanka is currently negotiating debt restructuring with bilateral and multilateral creditors.
Wickremesinghe said by mid-May the restructuring programme would come into effect.

Sri Lanka in April declared its first-ever debt default in its history as the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 triggered by forex shortages sparked public protests.
Months-long street protests led to the ouster of the then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in mid-July. Rajapaksa had started the IMF negotiations after refusing to tap the global lender for support.
Sri Lanka has introduced painful economic measures such as tax hikes and utility rate hikes to unlock the programme. Trade unions and opposition groups have organised protests against such measures.
The programme will allow Sri Lanka to access financing of up to USD 7 billion from the IMF, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and multilateral organisations, a statement said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 28, 2023
Sri Lanka’s ex-AG summoned over 2019 Easter Sunday attacks

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s former Attorney General (AG), who claimed that there was a ‘grand conspiracy’ behind the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, has been summoned to the police special investigation unit to record a statement.
Ex-Attorney General Dappula de Livera has been summoned to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) to appear on Wednesday following a direction by Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe to the present AG to record a statement from the former AG.
Few days ahead of his retirement in 2021, Livera had stated that there was a ‘grand conspiracy with regard to the 2019 April Attacks’.

Speaking to the media, the former AG had stated that the foreign violent extremist religious ideology was imported to Sri Lanka at some point and it played a key role in carrying out the attacks.
Livera had also claimed that the investigations into the coordinated attacks, carried out on three Christian churches and four hotels on April 21, 2019, were focused on three people living overseas including Abu Hind in India, and Lukman Thalib and son in Australia for their connection to the attacks.
Indian security agencies, which had followed the extremist movement in Sri Lanka, National Thowheeth Jama’ath and its leader Mohammed Zaharan, had shared detailed information about the attacks well ahead of the disaster but Sri Lankan security had to act on the details provided.
The multiple attacks killed nearly 270 people including foreigners and injured over 500.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 19, 2023
Sri Lanka’s inflation drops further to 50.3% amid economic crisis

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s inflation decreased to 50.3 per cent in March from 50.6 per cent the previous month amid the ongoing economic crisis, official statistics revealed.
The year-on-year inflation of the food group dropped to 47.6 per cent in March from 54.4 per cent in February, and inflation in the non-food group increased to 51.7 per cent from 48.8 per cent in February, reports Xinhua news agency.
Inflation in the country has been dropping in the last few months.
Inflation fell to 54.2 per cent in January from 57.2 per cent in December 2022.
The country’s central bank said that inflation will be reduced to single digit by the end of the year.
As Sri Lanka is still undergoing its worst ever economic crisis since independence in 1948, the island nation last month had finally secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which came as a lifeline for the island nation that has billions of dollars in loans.
The Covid-19 pandemic, rising energy prices, populist tax cuts and inflation of more than 50 per cent has battered Sri Lanka.
A shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials also pushed the cost of living to record highs, triggering violent nationwide protests which overthrew the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government in 2022.

As a result the country defaulted on its debts with international lenders last May for the first time in its history.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 1, 2023
Sri Lanka’s only solution to economic crisis is turning to IMF, says Wickremesinghe

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Colombo: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday emphasised that seeking the IMF bailout package was the only option available to the debt-ridden country to overcome the ongoing economic crisis.
“When a country goes bankrupt, it has to go to the International Monetary Fund. Apart from that, there is no other organisation in the world that provides aid when a country goes bankrupt,” Wickremesinghe said.
Addressing a gathering in the central town of Kandy, he said that each nation that experienced an economic catastrophe recovered after engaging in talks with the IMF and cited the example of Greece which took 13 years to recover from the collapsed economy.
“I have no hope of being President for 13 years,” Wickremesinghe said, amidst opposition to his hard economic reforms which had triggered utility rate hikes and increased personal taxes.
“There is only one way to rebuild this collapsed economy. That is the International Monetary Fund. Different political parties are presenting different stories. I suggested to them to let me know if there is another way to resurrect the collapsed economy.
“The IMF indicates that our tax revenue should be 15 per cent of the GDP as it was in 2019. So far it has gone down to 09 per cent,” he added.
He said the IMF had assigned Sri Lanka 15 tasks to complete.
“The IMF gave us until December 31 to implement it. But we couldn’t do it on that particular day. Then we made plans to get time until January 31. Even at that time, we were unable to complete those 15 points. Finally, the deadline was pushed back to February 15… All 15 tasks assigned to us have been completed. Now it is up to the IMF,” he added.

Wickremesinghe acknowledged that delays over Chinese willingness to restructure Sri Lanka debt had caused problems.
“This is being discussed further. The IMF also suggested that everyone should get on one platform and discuss. However as China is a world power, their procedure is different,” he said.
He said he would meet the Chinese finance minister on February 23 in Bengaluru at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting this week.
“There, I hope to discuss the debt restructuring method of Sri Lanka with the Chinese Finance Minister,” he added.
Wickremesinghe said if the IMF did not provide assistance, the island nation would have to return to its last year situation of unavailability of fuel and 12-hour power cuts.
Sri Lanka was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves, sparking political turmoil in the country which led to the ouster of the all-powerful Rajapaksa family.
The IMF in September last year approved Sri Lanka a 2.9 billion dollar bailout package over 4 years pending Sri Lanka’s ability to restructure its debt with creditors — both bilateral and sovereign bond holders.
With assurances from creditors, the 2.9 billion dollar facility could get the IMF board approval in March.
The IMF facility would enable the island nation to obtain bridging finance from markets and other lending institutions such as the ADB and the World Bank.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 21, 2023
Sri Lanka’s inflation drops to 54.2 percent in January

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s inflation decreased to 54.2 percent in January from 57.2 percent in December 2022, the country’s Department of Census and Statistics reported.
Inflation of food dropped to 60.1 percent in January from 64.4 percent in December, the department said on Tuesday.
Inflation in the non-food category decreased to 51 percent in January from 53.4 percent in the previous month, it added.
In November, the inflation was 65 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.
Last week the country’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged, stating that the current tight monetary policy was necessary to tame inflation and restore economic stability.
It said that inflation will be reduced to single digits by the end of the year.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 1, 2023