Srilanka Emergency

SL to finalise negotiations with creditors before 1st review of IMF bailout

Sri Lanka has received the first tranche of about $330 million from the IMF, and this has not only eased liquidity conditions in the domestic foreign currency market

India will help Sri Lanka in oil sector despite recent changes: Officials

Colombo awards licences to three foreign firms, including a Chinese one, to operate in retail fuel market

Sri Lanka's key inflation rate eases to 50.6% in February: Colombo CPI

(Reuters) -Sri Lanka's key inflation rate eased to 50.6% in February from 51.7% in January, the statistics department said on Tuesday, as food prices eased

India writes to IMF backing Sri Lanka's debt restructuring plan: Report

Sri Lanka owes India around $1 billion that will come under the debt restructuring plan

India provides 75 buses to Sri Lanka to support public transport system

India has handed 75 passenger buses to Sri Lanka as part of its assistance towards strengthening public transport infrastructure in the cash-strapped country. As part of its 'Neighbourhood First' policy, India has extended multi-pronged assistance to Sri Lanka to help the country tide over its worst economic and humanitarian crisis since its independence from Great Britain in 1948. Supporting mobility and accessibility in Sri Lanka, High Commissioner handed over 75 buses for use by Transport Board. 500 buses are being supplied to Sri Lanka through Indian assistance towards strengthening public transport infrastructure, the Indian High Commission here said in a statement. In a similar move, India handed 125 SUVs to the Sri Lanka Police under a line of credit in December to support the island nation and help it address the serious mobility restriction issues faced by the police, due to the non-availability of vehicles. The Sri Lankan government in May last year declared a debt defaul

United Nations' WFP approves $74.87 million for Sri Lanka's strategic plan

The WFP appreciated the government's commitment towards achieving food security and improved nutrition and to corporate with achieving the Agenda for 2030 and SDGs

Sri Lanka weighs favoured creditor clause to speed up debt talks with IMF

Sri Lanka is pursuing pacts with commercial and bilateral lenders to meet conditions for the IMF to disburse a $2.9 billion loan

China donates another consignment of medical supplies to Sri Lanka

China has donated another consignment of medical supplies worth USD 54,19,100 to Sri Lanka as the island nation continues to overcome its worst hit economic crisis, the Chinese Embassy said here on Wednesday. With the latest consignment, which arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, China has donated 5 billion rupees worth of medical supplies to Sri Lanka since the economic crisis the island nation in June. "The medicine worth 2 billion rupees arrived on Tuesday. China has donated 5 billion rupees worth of medicine to Sri Lanka since the economic crisis came to hit in June," the embassy said. The shipment of medical supplies was after this week's donation of 1000 metric tons of rice meant for students, the Embassy said. Sri Lanka and China are talking currently on debt restructuring. President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Monday that talks were continuing with the Exim Bank of China on restructuring debt. Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt and has suspended repaying its USD 51 billion forei

Sri Lankan PM stresses need for further growth in trade with India

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has met top executives from India and stressed the need for further growth in bilateral trade and increase Indian investments in new areas, where the techno knowhow from the neighbouring country could be introduced, according to his office. Prime Minister Gunawardena made the remarks when the Indian CEO Forum-Sri Lanka (ICF) called on him at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday. He thanked the Indian companies for their significant input and support to Sri Lanka's economy by way of bringing substantial investments into the cash-strapped country, export earnings, employment generation, and contribution of treasury through direct and indirect taxes, the PM office said in a statement. The ICF team led by its President T S Prakash stated that the member companies represent diverse industries from automobile, banking, cement, and FMCG to fuel, glass, hospitality, infrastructure, logistics, packaging, paint, and pharmaceuticals. Referring t

Sri Lanka's inflation zooms to 69.8% in Sept amid worst economic crisis

Sri Lanka's inflation has set a new record of 69.8 per cent in September, up from 64.3 per cent a month earlier, data from the state statistics office said on Friday, highlighting the challenge for the central bank as the island reels under its worst economic crisis in seven decades. The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI), a leading indicator that gauges inflation in Sri Lanka's biggest city, rose 69.8 per cent from a year ago, from 64.3 per cent in August. The contribution from the food sector was 30.82 per cent in September, the statistics department said. Based on the CCPI, the moving average inflation in September was 33.4 per cent over 28 per cent recorded in August. Most basic food items other than rice and eggs had seen increases. The government recently hiked utility services rates of water and electricity alongside the high cost of food. Import restrictions imposed in the ongoing economic crisis have caused scarcities. The worsening foreign exchange crisis in April cau

Lankan govt designates high-security zones for ensuring stability: Official

The Sri Lankan government on Monday defended its decision to declare several key locations in Colombo as high-security zones, saying the move is aimed at ensuring stability and not curbing freedom of expression, amid mounting criticism from rights groups. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday declared several locations, including Parliament, the Supreme Court complex and the President's Secretariat among others, as high-security zones (HSZs), banning any kind of protest or agitation in their vicinity. HSZs are nothing new. We saw how the Presidential Secretariat came to be surrounded by groups recently. They blocked officials from functioning. If the main place where key decisions are made is blocked, we have to take decisions to prevent it, said Kamal Gunaratne, the secretary to the ministry of defence. Sri Lanka's Presidential Secretariat was stormed in July by a sea of anti-government protesters who had been demanding former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignatio

Bhutan reopens to those willing to pay $200 per day visitor tax: Report

Bhutan has increased its Sustainable Development Fee from $65 a night as part of a "renewed focus of sustainability" in the government's strategy to attract "high value, low volume" tourism

Fallen Rajapaksas back Wickremesinghe as Lanka's creditors seek answers

Much has changed since demonstrators drove Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office in July, the climax of months of protests after record-high inflation and depleted currency reserves bankrupted the nation

Crisis hit-Sri Lanka to brief creditors on IMF deal for economic recovery

The Sri Lankan government will virtually brief all its external creditors on September 23 on the deal agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the economic recovery and the next steps in the debt restructuring process. On September 1, the IMF reached a staff-level agreement to support Sri Lanka's economic policies with a 48-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of about USD 2.9 billion. Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 which was triggered by a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. "Sri Lanka will make an online presentation to external creditors on September 23 updating them on a deal agreed with the International Monetary Fund and recent economic developments," Clifford Chance, the debt restructuring adviser, said in a statement on Saturday. The Sri Lankan Finance Ministry will update creditors on recent macro-economic developments, the objectives of the IMF package, and the next steps in th

India emerges as Sri Lanka's top lender in 2022, think tank report says

India has emerged as the top lender to Sri Lanka in 2022, disbursing USD 377 million in loans to the island nation as it grappled with an unprecedented political crisis and economic turmoil, according to the Verite Research think-tank. The Asian Development Bank follows India with USD 360 million in loans. They account for 76 per cent of total disbursements from January to April 2022. Out of a total disbursement of loans amounting to USD 968 million in the first four months this year, India with a contribution of USD 377 million has emerged as Sri Lanka's largest bilateral lender, Verite Research, a Colombo-based independent interdisciplinary think-tank providing strategic analysis and advice for governments and the private sector in Asia, said. Between 2017 and 2021, China has been the largest bilateral lender to Sri Lanka. In 2021, China had provided USD 947 million of which USD 809 million were borrowings from the China Development Bank. The ADB has been the largest multilateral

Sri Lanka's GDP likely plunged amid debt crisis, political turmoil

Gross domestic product probably fell 10% in the three months to June from a year ago, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists as of Wednesday

Lazard in talks with China, India, Japan on restructuring Sri Lanka's debt

The three countries hold about $13 billion of Sri Lanka's debt, while China is Sri Lanka's largest bilateral creditor

Sri Lanka's economic crisis powers 22% spike in Indian orthodox tea exports

Sri Lanka accounts for half the global trade in orthodox teas. Sources say exports from India could pick up further in second and third quarters, will help meet target of 240 mkg by year-end

US to give $40 mn agricultural aid to Sri Lanka for next cultivation season

The United States on Saturday announced USD 40 million in aid to buy fertilizer and other key agricultural inputs in time for the next cultivation season in crisis-hit Sri Lanka. USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who is visiting Sri Lanka, made the announcement after she met farmer representatives in Ja-Ela outside the capital, Colombo. She said the money will be in addition to the $6 million announced earlier to assist low income farmers. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis and acute shortages of essentials like food, fuel and medicines because of a lack of foreign currency to pay for the imports. Agricultural yields dropped by more than half for the past two cultivation seasons because authorities had banned the imports of chemical fertilizers ostensibly to promote organic farming. The farmers that I just met with described enormous challenges that the economic crisis has placed on them and their families and the whole community. They described phenomena that were ...

Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa leaves for US: Reports

Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa left for the US on Friday to receive medical treatment, a week after the Supreme Court allowed him to travel overseas until January 15, media reports said. Basil Rajapaksa, the younger brother of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, left for Dubai on an Emirates flight from Katunayake Airport, from where he will catch a connecting flight to the US, Daily Mirror Lanka newspaper reported, quoting officials. On September 2, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court's five-bench headed by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya permitted Basil, 71, to travel overseas, until January 15 next year to receive medical treatment. The Supreme Court made this order in connection with a Fundamental Rights petition filed by Sri Lankan swimmer and coach Julian Bolling, former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chandra Jayaratne, Transparency International and Jehan Canaga Retna, the Mirror report said. The petitioners are seeking an order to take legal action