Economic Crisis

Consumer prices rose 35.37% from a year earlier, according to data released by the statistics department Saturday

The country's central bank said that inflation will be reduced to single digit by the end of the year

"The world is still suffering from the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it should be our collective responsibility to put a minimum burden on the low-income people," Bilawal said

Bank stress tests were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis, and they revealed the vulnerability of banks to market crashes and economic downturns

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

Sri Lanka has imported two million eggs from India to ensure food security in the crisis-hit island nation, Trade Minister Nalin Fernando said on Thursday. Fernando told Parliament that the shipment imported by the State Trading General Corporation had arrived and the stocks would be released in the market within three days. The decision to import eggs was based on a decision by a cabinet committee to ensure food security, Fernando said. In January when the market shortages were noticed, the Animal Production and Health Department declined to approve the import of eggs from India or Pakistan as both countries reported bird-flu outbreaks in the past six months. Director General of the Health Department Himali Kotelawala had said that the country of origin of eggs must be free of bird flu for at least six months. India had recently experienced severe outbreaks of bird flu, so importing eggs from India is contrary to the Animal Health Disease Act in Sri Lanka. The Import and Export .

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The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved USD 3 billion in financial assistance to debt-ridden Sri Lanka to help it immediately overcome its economic crisis. IMF's Executive Board approved on Monday a 48-month extended arrangement under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with an amount of SDR 2.286 billion (395 per cent of quota or about USD 3 billion), according to a statement. Special Drawing Rights (SDR) are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sri Lanka has been hit hard by a catastrophic economic and humanitarian crisis. The economy is facing significant challenges stemming from pre-existing vulnerabilities and policy missteps in the lead up to the crisis, further aggravated by a series of external shocks, the IMF said. The EFF-supported programme aims to restore Sri Lanka's macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, mitigate the economic impact on the poor and vulnerable, safeguard financi

The Sri Lankan government's debt has risen to 115.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of 2022 from 104.5 per cent a year earlier, according to the latest national account estimates

This has led to a delay in concluding talks with the IMF for the program, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the upper house of parliament on Thursday

The United States has encouraged Pakistan to continue working with the IMF to improve the cash-strapped country's economy and the business environment to "unlock" the much-needed funds from the global lender. US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price while talking to media on Wednesday said that the US is working with Pakistani partners and, in turn, it is working with international financial institutions, the IMF, to put itself on a sustainable growth path. Ultimately, it is going to have to be decisions on the part of our Pakistani counterparts to unlock this IMF funding. We encourage Pakistan to continue working with the IMF, especially on reforms that will improve Pakistan's business environment, Price said. We believe that it will make Pakistani business more competitive, and will attract high-quality investment, he said. They improve the competitiveness of partnering Pakistani firms, fuelling economic growth that increases employment and household incomes. We believe that by

China has given assurances that it will support Sri Lanka's debt restructuring, clearing the biggest hurdle for the debt-ridden country to secure a much-needed USD 2.9-billion bailout package from the IMF, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday. In January, India strongly backed the island nation's efforts to secure a loan from the global lender to recover from its worst-ever economic crisis. Last night we received a new letter from the EXIM Bank of China. I and the governor of the Central Bank signed our letter of intent and sent it to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last night itself," Wickremesinghe, who is also the minister of finance, told Parliament. Wickremesinghe said, our part of obligations are now complete and we hope the IMF will do their duty by the third or fourth week of this month, this will enable us to receive funding from the world bank and the ADB, he added. The IMF bailout process made slow progress due to the need to restructure Sri Lanka's nearl

There have been some differences between the CBSL and IMF staff on the inflation outlook, CBSL Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said

Pakistan will get another USD 1.3 billion from all-weather ally China to shore up its fast-depleting forex reserves, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday, days after the cash-strapped country received USD 700 million from Beijing. Addressing a press conference here, Dar said that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) would provide the funding in the coming days. "All our formalities with the ICBC are complete as of last night. We returned them USD 1.3bn in the last few months they are giving it back and have renewed this facility, he said. The minister said that USD 500 million would be transferred to Pakistan possibly in the next few days - by Monday or Tuesday - and another USD 500 million within 10 days. Last week, Pakistan received a much-needed cash injection of USD 700 million from China to help its ailing economy before the finalisation of talks with the IMF for financial assistance. It prompted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to express gratitude to th

The cash-strapped Pakistan government has directed the accountant general to cease the clearing of bills, including salaries, owing to the current economic crisis, according to a media report on Saturday. The Ministry of Finance and Revenue also instructed the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) to halt the clearing of all the bills of the federal ministries/divisions and attached departments until further notice, The News International quoted official sources as saying. The newspaper reported that the operational cost-related releases faced difficulties mainly due to the economic hardship facing the country. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves, which fell to a critically low level of USD 2.9 billion a few weeks ago, have now risen closer to USD 4 billion, even as the country eagerly waits for the USD 1.1 billion tranches of funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, who was contacted for a comment by the newspaper, said it might

The South Asian state is seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund again - something it's done more than 20 times

After a year of load-shedding, Sri Lankans will get continuous power from Thursday, albeit with a hike in tariff in line with the conditions set by the IMF. The Sri Lankan government's move comes as the debt-hit country aims to secure a much-needed USD 2.9 billion tranche from the Washington-based global lender. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has directed officials to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to customers after the tariff revision is implemented, a statement from the President's Media Division said. The state power entity said that the power cuts ranging from one to 14 hours from January last year would end on Thursday. A 66 per cent tariff hike would be in effect, the second in the last six months. A 70 per cent rate increase was introduced in August last year. The government opted for a cost-reflective tariff plan as dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said. This will be a giant step in securing the IMF facility, he

With a narrow industrial base and dysfunctional politics, and a counter-productive national security agenda, Pakistan could well remain an "international migraine", writes T N Ninan

Without a bailout package from IMF and support from others, India's neighbour will be pushed deeper into the abyss

As dwindling forex reserves, nationwide power outages, stampedes at state-run food distribution centres and a Pakistani rupee, which plunged nearly 50 per cent in a year to 260 to the US dollar on Monday, propels the neighbouring country towards being an international "basket case", Indian analysts believe there could be serious consequences for the region. Amid this economic crisis, the Shahbaz Sharif government will begin crucial negotiations with the Washington-based IMF (International Monetary Fund) for a bail-out package on Tuesday which may come with "tough and possibly politically risky" pre-conditions of austerity, feeding into a bigger political crisis, they said. The risk for India would not only be instability in Pakistan with its fall-out of rising extremism in the region but also unpredictable actions which could include bids to divert domestic public attention by focussing on an external enemy. "The current economic crisis is feeding into the ongoing political crisis .