Findings from the latest bi-annual Export Barometer Survey indicate that exporters are losing confidence in the industry’s outlook, as firms face mounting challenges posed by increasing local and global economic risks. This survey was conducted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Partnership for Accelerating Results…
Advocata’s Bath Curry Indicator (BCI) , which tracks the monthly changes in the retail price of food, recorded an increase of 14% from March 2022 to April 2022. This is a year on year increase of 49% for this basket of food. This is driven primarily by prices of dhal and samba rice being the…
These remitting channels work as network arrangements and can be sometimes found within a particular community in the society. In these arrangements, the value transfers are facilitated by agents belonging to these networks who are located all over the world. In the Hawala channels, the Hawala agents or dealers (also known as Hawala Dars) live…
Multiple crises and the rise of people power are taking their toll on business sentiment Be it the devaluation of the Sri Lankan Rupee – which has seen it shed nearly 75 percent in a matter of weeks – the ignominy of a virtually cashless treasury, shortages of essentials (not to mention galloping inflation), the…
By Prof. Samitha Hettige The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the 21st century Silk Road launched in 2013. The ancient Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road which took Chinese produce to the world and vice versa was the first ever global economic expansion drive which took place before Columbus reached the Red Indians…
By Andy Mukherjee Bloomberg Opinion – What was good for Sri Lanka under British colonial rule 75 years ago may be worth a try again. Or at least that’s what Mark Mobius, the former emerging markets guru at Franklin Templeton Investments, seems to be suggesting. To regain the confidence of investors, the bankrupt Indian Ocean…
The Rajapaksa family is racing to secure IMF funds as protesters seek to remove it from power. By Kai Schultz Bloomberg – Ahead of the November 2019 election, Sri Lankan presidential challenger Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed sweeping tax cuts so reckless the incumbent government thought it must be a campaign gimmick. The finance minister at the…
The Silk Road Journal by Mahika Ming Hainan is China’s only tropical island located south of the mainland. It has many ancient Theravada Buddhist archaeological sites which attracts tourists from all over the world. Hainan also is famous due to the 108 meter Bodhisathva Guanyin statue (taller than the statue of Liberty in New York,…
COLOMBO, April 18 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis has triggered an unprecedented wave of spontaneous protests as the island nation of 22 million people struggles with prolonged power cuts and a shortage of essentials, including fuel and medicines. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government has come under growing pressure for its mishandling of the economy,…
By Mahika Ming PM Sirima (1970 – 77) was globetrotting while the masses were suffering, thus planted her own “political jungle” and stayed there in till 1989. President JR had a steam roller majority (with undated letters of resignation from MPs) since 1978 when India moved in to help SL 10 years later with their…
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