An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team will visit Colombo in a month's time for the first review on Sri Lanka's loan programme, Reuters reported. The Washington, D.C.-based lender approved a nearly $3 billion bailout for crisis-hit Sri Lanka in March. The Asian island is struggling with its worst financial crisis in over seven decades, triggered by a severe shortage of foreign exchange.
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Monetary policy transmission to the real economy in Sri Lanka is still incomplete, the governor of the country's central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, said at a LSEG FX Community Event on Monday, Reuters reported. Weerasinghe said he would like to see private sector interest rates come down further and at a faster pace, adding that the domestic debt restructuring is the most important focus for the debt-laden country in the near-term. "We would firstly like to see yields drop in line with policy rates and, from there, decline further. We are waiting to see this reaction from markets," he said.
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Sri Lanka eased restrictions on the foreign-exchange market to allow companies and individuals to send more dollars abroad. The rupee weakened a 15th day, Bloomberg News reported. Local companies would be allowed to transfer as much as $100,000 to set up or expand an overseas business, effective for six months starting from June 28, the central bank said in a statement on its website late Monday. The rupee fell 0.4% to 330.37 per dollar on Tuesday.
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Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament yesterday that Sri Lanka could exit bankruptcy by September, the Daily News reported. He also mentioned that with the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Act, Sri Lanka will be transformed into a corruption-free country. The State Minister said this during the debate on the Central Bank Bill. Semasinghe also said that Sri Lanka has received GSP tax relief for another four years. That’s a big victory. International confidence has been confirmed about the economic stability of the country.
The Select Committee appointed to investigate Sri Lanka's bankruptcy will meet for the first time on Tuesday (18) in Parliament, Newsfirst reported. The meeting will focus on the committee's future course of action, Chair of the committee SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam said. They will also discuss the names of those who will first be summoned before the committee. In the meantime, SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara will not be part of the committee. The SJB has decided to appoint an alternative committee instead.
SJB MP Harshana Rajakaruna said in Parliament yesterday that all SJB MPs will resign from the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) appointed to investigate the country’s bankruptcy, the Daily News reported. The MP said in a special statement in Parliament that the Speaker will be informed in writing in this regard. He said that it is very unfair to appoint the Secretary General of the same party that bankrupted the country as the chairman of the Select Committee while the Opposition has requested the chairmanship.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday announced the decision made by the Opposition to establish a committee, separate from the one formed in Parliament, to delve into the underlying causes that contributed to Sri Lanka’s state of bankruptcy, the Daily FT reported. Premadasa expressed his belief that the committee appointed by the government to investigate the country’s bankruptcy is a calculated maneuver aimed at fulfilling specific political objectives rather than impartially addressing the issue.
Sri Lanka’s Parliament has said that it has appointed a committee to probe into the country’s financial bankruptcy and submit recommendations on the matter, The Siasat Daily reported. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced in Parliament on Thursday that the committee would be chaired by lawmaker of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Sagara Kariyawasam, Xinhua news agency reported. Abeywardena said there are many allegations about the cause of Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy in 2022, and the committee is entrusted with investigating these allegations.
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Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe has expressed hope that the country will be able to shed its bankruptcy status by September and boost its economy, the Economic Times of India reported. Wickremesinghe’s remark came in the backdrop of Lanka's parliament approving a domestic debt restructuring plan on Saturday that is crucial to continue a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The plan was passed with a majority of 122 votes in the 225-member parliament.
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Sri Lanka’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a program to restructure the country's staggering domestic debt as the island nation struggles to emerge from an economic crisis that has engulfed it since last year, the Associated Press reported. The domestic debt restructuring is required as part of a bailout package obtained from the International Monterey Fund, under which nearly $3 billion in government budgetary support will be disbursed in stages. Sri Lanka’s total debt exceeds $83 billion, of which $41.5 billion is foreign and $42.1 billion is domestic.
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