Ranil camp plans to submit another no-confidence motion to parliament before December 4, when the Supreme Court starts hearing petitions against Sirisena’s bid to dissolve Parliament. Factions around Rajapaksa and ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe battled for control of the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) on 23 Nov This committee determines Parliament’s functions, including its …
The flying visit of the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to Islamabad on September 5 is reported to have opened the door to a ‘reset’ in the ties between the two formerly close military allies. To make it look possible, Pakistan has promised to end terrorism that thrives on its soil. But the portents …
Sri Lanka’s economic growth rate fell to 3.1 percent last year, from 4.4 percent in 2016, the worst result in 16 years. This slide points to serious economic problems facing the government, amid a worsening debt burden. The Statistics Department said the services sector, which contributes close to 56 percent of output, grew last year …
The Sri Lankan economy has good underlying momentum but is starting to show signs of strain from a combination of an increasingly difficult external environment and challenging policy adjustments. Real GDP growth was 4.8 percent in 2015 (broadly unchanged from 2014), while headline inflation remains stable in the low single digits. An increase in recurrent …
The first budget of Sri Lanka’s “unity” government, presented to parliament by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake last Friday, will impose a series of austerity measures. The budget is in line with the “economic policy statement” delivered by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to parliament on November 5. Those measures included the commercialisation or privatisation of state-owned …