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Economic crisis: 100,000 families already starving – By Ifham Nizam Govt. to provide monthly assistance package – official Source : island.lk Plans are underway to assist an average needy family of  four with a monthly package of Rs. 15,000, a senior adviser to President Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday, adding that the move was expected to help ameliorate the plight of nearly 65,000 families. Food Security Committee Chairman Dr. Suren Batagoda told The Island yesterday that at present some 100,000 families across the country were starving. He said financial assistance would be provided to those families for three months. Within three months, the government would design a package in the form of food stamps, etc. Dr. Batagoda said the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the World Bank, and state agencies would also team up to strengthen food security, focusing especially on needy pregnant mothers and pre-school children. ...

Aug 10, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , ,
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WB halts new funding to Sri Lanka till viable programme is put in place Source:Island Until an adequate macroeconomic policy framework is in place, the World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, it was announced yesterday.Issuing a statement, the World Bank said that a macroeconomic policy framework requires deep structural reforms that focus on economic stabilisation, and also on addressing the root structural causes that created this crisis to ensure that Sri Lanka’s future recovery and development is resilient and inclusive.They World Bank said that it is deeply concerned about the dire economic situation and its impact on the people of Sri Lanka. “To help alleviate severe shortages of essential items such as medicines, cooking gas, fertilizer, meals for schoolchildren and cash transfers for poor and vulnerable households, we are repurposing resources under existing loans in our portfolio. To date, about US$160 million of these ...

Aug 1, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged
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All-Party Government will strengthen parliamentary democracy – Dr. Susil Premajayantha – By UDITHA KUMARASINGHE Source : sundayobserver Leader of the House and Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that forming an All-Party Government would pave the way to strengthen parliamentary democracy. The Minister in an interview with the Sunday Observer said at present the whole world is looking at us so that it would be a very good message for the international community and the financial institutions such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and donor countries to reconsider their stance towards Sri Lanka. He said the ulterior motive of certain groups is to capture power outside the Constitution. However, most of the people who participated in those protests are not in that line. First we should restore the law and order in the country and guarantee the supply of essential items such as foods and implement a ...

Jul 31, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , , , ,
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‘We can barely think of buying food’: Life in Sri Lanka – By Chris Barrett Source : theage.com.au A catastrophic mix of populist tax cuts, an ill-planned push for organic farming and political hubris sowed the seeds of the man-made tragedy unfolding in Sri Lanka today. n the shanties of north-east Colombo, they called it Garbage Mountain. No ordinary rubbish dump, it soared over the suburb of Kolonnawa, rising as high as 90 metres, as 800 tonnes of rubbish from Sri Lanka’s commercial capital was unloaded at the site every day. Five years ago, after a flood and a fire, it came crashing down, to catastrophic effect. “Suddenly we heard a really loud noise,” recalls Sandun Rohitha, who lived next to the waste pile in a home made of plastic sheets. “I had a helmet and safety jacket and I ran to the dump and pulled one man out. But I saw ...

Jul 9, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , ,
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SRI LANKA NEEDS FEWER POLITICIANS AND MORE TECHNOLOGISTS – By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando   “There are rumours that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had to take over the finance portfolio since no member of the Sri Lankan Parliament was willing to take up this challenge of managing the country’s finances. Instead of looking at the scenario negatively, it would be appropriate to think that the Prime Minister taking over the finance portfolio is also a progressive step, as the finance portfolio requires the maximum attention at this stage,” says veteran Indian journalist N.S. Venkataramanin in his latest article, which landed in my email ‘in box’. He further states that ‘when the Sri Lankan Government negotiated with the IMF to obtain financial support, the present scenario appears to be that the IMF is procrastinating the issue and has not given a firm assurance to the Sri Lankan Government. When ...

Jun 10, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Tilak S Fernando Tagged , , , , , , ,
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Sri Lanka Is a Small Preview of a Global Default Crisis – By Ruth Pollard The country is already wracked with shortages. The social order may shatter if the economy isn’t infused with cash soon.   Source:bloomberg.com High school teacher S. Jeeva has spent two days in the baking sun lining up for cooking gas in the north of Sri Lanka’s capital. He’s been standing with thousands of others waiting for a delivery that, so far, hasn’t come. Meanwhile, many of his students, who will sit for important national exams Monday, have joined protests against the government at the waterfront along Colombo’s iconic Galle Face Green. Both are symbols of the economic and political crisis gripping the nation — the result of decades of corruption and financial mismanagement that pushed the country to default on May 19. It is, Jeeva says, his students’ democratic right to protest and demand a better government. Daily life has become ...

May 23, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
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News In Sri Lanka – by Dr harold Gunatillake   Website: doctorharold.com Transcript: Bringing the most important latest news to your doorstep “If the ongoing protests diminish through fatigue and fail to monitor Wickremasinghe, Lanka’s fall into the abyss will not only be inevitable but extremely painful as well”. Sasanka Perera-Professor of Sociology and Dean of Social Sciences at South Asian University, New Delhi. In his first interview since taking office, Mr Wickremesinghe told the BBC he would ensure families get three meals a day. Appealing to the world for more financial help, he said, “there won’t be a hunger crisis; we will find food”. The new PM described the Sri Lankan economy as “broken”, but he said his message to Sri Lankans was to “be patient; I will bring things back”. Sri Lanka’s political and socio-economic disaster turned into deadly combat between the progovernment thugs with the backing of Mahinda ...

May 20, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Dr harold Gunatillake Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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A reset of economic fundamentals in Sri Lanka; Is IMF the only hope? By Raj Gonsalkorale Sri Lanka is at the precipice of an economic disaster. The country’s foreign debt is suffocating the country, it is its biggest immediate problem, and the problem for the foreseeable future unless urgent and drastic action is taken, now. The crisis arises due to several factors, the primary factor being the high component of market borrowings in the form of International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) in the country’s foreign debt portfolio. ISBs account for 47% of the debt. The following Central Bank chart shows this ISBs are short term loans attracting high interest rates (around 6%) with no grace periods while loans from international institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IMF, attract low interests and long term repayment terms including grace periods. ISBs are usually not conditional while others like WB, ADB, ...

Sep 8, 2021 Posted by In Articles, Raj Gonsalkorale Tagged , , , ,
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