By Thilina Panduwawala A Central Bank dataset that carries an ambiguous category of foreign debt reported under state-owned enterprises (SOEs). World Bank International Debt Statistics (IDS) data that shows a higher public debt liability to Chinese creditors than the Ministry of Finance annual reports. The curious absence of loans taken to build the Hambantota Port…
How will Colombo’s economic relations with Beijing proceed in the post-default era? By Umesh Moramudali and Yunnan Chen Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s visit to Beijing from January 14 to 17 is his second foreign trip following a mission to India last year. While his trip to India reflected its status as Sri Lanka’s major economic partner, his trip…
By Yenuli Ranaweera The Covid-19 pandemic, conflict in Ukraine, or the ‘Chinese debt trap’: most initial media reports incorrectly attributed Sri Lanka’s economic woes to these contemporary issues, glossing over the serious, long-standing issues that brought it to a head. These include years of structural inefficiencies, unsustainable policies, and financial mismanagement which left the country…
By Charuka Peiris (The writer is the Programme and Research Officer at Arutha. Arutha is a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research and communication with a special interest in public debt and taxation. Its economic civic education initiative, Default LK, was established during Sri Lanka’s first-ever sovereign default in 2022) President Anura Kumara…
This was written by Rojie Ekanayake. She is a Programme and Research Officer at Arutha. Arutha is a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research and communication with a special interest in public debt and taxation. Its economic civic education initiative, Default LK, was established during Sri Lanka’s first-ever sovereign default in 2022 A…
This piece was written by Yolani Fernando, the Executive Director at Arutha. There are very few things that unite Sri Lankans as passionately as our love for tea and now our hatred of taxes. These past years of constant tax reforms have kept taxes in the public eye much more than usual. And while we…
This article summarises the findings of the first issue of the ‘Sri Lanka-China Economic Brief’ published by Arutha China has become Sri Lanka’s largest foreign creditor, foreign investor, and top importing source in just two decades. After Sri Lanka’s sovereign default, China remained crucial to Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and External Debt Restructuring (EDR) process. …
This article was written by Rojie Ekanayake from Arutha in partnership with Factum. It originally appeared in The Morning newspaper. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arutha. Among the various indicators that economists generally rely on to assess the health of the economy, the unemployment…
This article was written by Yolani Fernando from Arutha in partnership with Factum. It originally appeared in The Morning newspaper. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arutha. Despite elections slated to be held only towards the latter part of the year, Sri Lankans are already…
This article aims to answer the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on debt restructuring. It was written by Rehana Thowfeek and Umesh Moramudali from Arutha, and Théo Maret in partnership with Factum. The original article appeared in The Morning newspaper. What is sovereign debt restructuring? Sovereign debt restructuring is the process used by countries to…
