Category: Opinion
Food Fight: Sri Lanka’s Battle for Food Security
By Lakshila Wanigasinghe World Food Day is observed on 16 October to promote awareness and action to ensure regular access to nutritious food for all. The blog examines Sri Lanka’s struggle to safeguard food and nutrition security amidst the ongoing economic crisis and outlines policy steps to tackle the challenge. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis continues to […]
Opinion: “Saving” the Economy
by M. Rizwan Muzzammil The economy is shrinking The economy can be likened to a train engine pulling carriages up a hill. The engine represents the wealth generating component of the economy, which is the private sector. This is because the existence of the private sector depends on profits, and since profits are an increase […]
Opinion: Marketers’ role in Sri Lanka’s recovery
By Thanzyl Thajudeen Despite the much-required socio-political changes, every one of us – whether its entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporations, institutions and individual citizens – have a crucial role to play in the country’s path to recovery. Instead of continuing to point out fingers to those responsible for the chaotic economic situation we are in – which […]
Opinion: What Sri Lanka Can Learn From Thatcher’s Legacy
by M. Rizwan Muzzammil Introduction The following article, describing the economic situation of post-war United Kingdom (UK), extracts information from “The Power of Capitalism” by Rainer Zitelmann. The reader is encouraged to refer to this book for more details and references. After the War In 1945 the Labour Party won the general elections, and prime […]
A Fiscal Council for Sri Lanka: Pathway to Regaining Fiscal Credibility
By Dr. Lakmini Fernando: Sri Lanka was once considered a development success story. But within the last few decades, this legacy was lost to governance failures and economic mismanagement. In recent years, the country has been characterised by a glaring lack of fiscal discipline reflected in rising deficits, debt, inefficient state expenditure and an inability […]
Opinion: Stagflation in Sri Lanka? Risks and Policy Responses
The world economy is showing signs of a serious slowdown due to overlapping crises including the Russia-Ukraine War, the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s real estate crisis and the global tightening of monetary policy. In June, the World Bank revised the 2022 growth prediction downward to 2.9% from its January forecast of 4.1%. The slowdown has come […]
Opinion: Fixing the Sri Lankan Economy
By M. Rizwan Muzzammil: Introduction The Sri Lankan economy is significantly weakened and at risk of catastrophic collapse. There is a need for the government to boost entrepreneurship and production. In order to do this the following two important hurdles to businesses must be addressed. The difficulties posed by these hurdles has caused an adverse […]
Sri Lanka’s Runaway Inflation and the Limits of Monetary Policy
By Dr Dushni Weerakoon: The bad news on inflation keeps coming. As of June 2022, year-on-year (YOY) inflation nationally is estimated at an all-time high of 59%. Annual inflation is lagging significantly behind at around 21%, indicative of the speed at which price inflation has been spiralling in recent months. This is in sharp contrast to Sri Lanka’s previous bout of high inflation in 2008 […]
Sri Lanka’s Deepening Economic Crisis: The Plight of the Poor
By Lakshila Wanigasinghe: Empty supermarket shelves, endless queues to buy essentials and overnight camping around fuel stations are now regular sights in Sri Lanka. As the economy continues to plummet with no viable short-term solutions in sight, levels of frustration among the citizens continue to rise. The country’s worst economic crisis since independence has battered […]
Transforming Tourism: Revitalizing Sri Lanka’s Tourism to be a Resilient & Inclusive Industry
A serene mist envelope an ocean of luscious greenery and hills, deep in the depths of a stillness that is synonymous with the Sri Lanka’s highlands. About 180 kilometers away from the hustle of the capital city Colombo, so lies Riverston, part of the Knuckles Mountain Range—a popular nature trail and hike among the island’s […]
Sri Lanka’s Food Crisis: What is the Role of Imports?
By Dr. Asanka Wijesinghe and Chathurrdhika Yogarajah: Food security has become a pressing concern for many Sri Lankans amidst a deepening domestic economic crisis, drastic loss of rice production, and post-Ukraine crisis commodity price surge in the world market. International organisations have started humanitarian programmes targeting the country’s most vulnerable citizens, while policymakers are pushing […]
‘s economic crisis
June 13, 2022 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is in the eye of its worst ever economic storm. It appears that with regard to every aspect of the economy, things are coming undone. Whether it be food, fuel, power, tax revenue, foreign reserves, inflation or even law and order, when looked at in aggregate the crisis […]