Browsing Articles by Title

Now showing items 2-21 of 27

    • Backwards in Blacklisting: Enabling Corruption in Procurement 

      Abeysinghe, Subhashini (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-11-23)
      Failure to tackle corruption is a key factor that contributed to the economic crisis the country is faced with today. Taking concrete steps to reduce corruption, therefore, is critical to recover from the current crisis ...

    • The Best Next Step for Improving Tax Collection 

      Siyambalapitiya, Sumini (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-07-21)
      In 2021, the country’s tax revenue as a share of gross domestic product (GDP)reached its lowest level since 1959 – dropping to just 8%. Increasing tax-to-GDP ratio is one of the most important measures of Sri Lanka’s ability ...

    • Calculating the Loss to the EPF From Proposed DDR 

      de Mel, Nishan (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-07-12)
      Justice and good decision-making flows in part, from the discipline of public reasoning. The belief in democracy is anchored in the hope of harnessing the power of reasoned decision making that is openly and dialogically ...

    • The Debt Digest - March 2023 

      de Mel, Nishan; Peiris, Udara (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-03-16)
      The Debt Digest by Verité Research provides analytical commentary on the latest developments in Sri Lanka’s debt crisis. A key milestone in Sri Lanka’s path to recovery was the staff-level agreement with the IMF in September ...

    • ETCA With India: Time to Shift Focus From Market Integration to Supply Chain Integration 

      Abeysinghe, Subhashini; Arangala, Mathisha (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-04-27)
      This article looks at; 1) what are global supply chains and why do they matter; 2) how new trade deals are focusing more on supply chain resilience than market access; 3) how current trade deals with India are focused on ...

    • Facing a Second Wave of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: Economic Cost of a Lockdown Strategy 

      Asia's Path Forward;
      de Mel, Deshal; Kapilan, Anushan       (Washington: Center for International Private Enterprise, 2020-08)
      As of August 2020, Sri Lanka is currently in the post-lockdown stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the surge in the number of infections in mid-March, the country was forced into a complete lockdown with all-day ...

    • For Sri Lanka, a Governance-Linked Bond Might Just Be the Ticket 

      de Mel, Nishan (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-12-21)
      It is a truth universally acknowledged that if Sri Lanka under-performs on its governance corrections, it will underperform on its economic recovery also (with apologies to Jane Austen), the first provides the foundation ...

    • Gender-based Budgeting for 2024: More Tokenism or True Commitment? 

      de Silva, Venya; Kemps, Portia (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-12-07)
      With the committee stage debates on Budget 2024 still ongoing, our interest has been piqued by a term that has gained relatively little attention since it was mentioned in the Budget Speech presented on 13 November 2023: ...

    • How Numbers Can Mislead: Does Retaining the Limit to The Appointment of Cabinet and Other Ministers Solve Administrative Inefficiency? 

      Raji, Yasmin (2021-01)
      This article discusses how, besides the obvious financial costs borne by having to maintain large cabinets, the focus on cabinet size alone in constitutional amendments proposed and passed conceals other problematic aspects ...

    • Impact of COVID-19 Response on Unemployment in Sri Lanka 

      Asia's Path Forward;
      de Mel, Nishan; Perera, Mihindu       (Washington: Center for International Private Enterprise, 2020-10-01)
      Goal number eight of the Sustainable Development Goals is set out as “Decent work and economic growth.” This goal recognizes that economic growth is not just an end, but also a means in itself of generating jobs – productive ...

    • Improving Lankan Women’s Access to Economic Opportunities: The Business Case 

      Abeysinghe, Subhashini; Siyambalapitiya, Sumini (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-03-30)
      As we in Sri Lanka explore the pathways out of the current crisis, it is imperative that we acknowledge the mammoth contributions that women make to the economy, hidden and unpaid, and seriously consider how to improve ...

    • Is Sri Lanka Addicted to Missing Revenue Targets? 

      de Mel, Nishan (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-10-30)
      It is all too familiar that Sri Lanka has a problem in meeting its budgeted revenue targets. Recently, a government member of parliament (MP) who voted in favour of the budget last year, said that the tax increases that ...

    • Large Scale Infrastructure, Small Scale Disclosure: Fertile Ground for Corruption 

      Abeysinghe, Subhashini; Pabasara, Chathuni (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-08-31)
      Large sums of money borrowed for large infrastructure projects is a key contributor to Sri Lanka’s Mountain of foreign debt, which the country is struggling to pay back. Lack of transparency, coupled with poor governance ...

    • Let’s Shield the EPF With the Instincts of Winston Churchill 

      de Mel, Nishan (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-07-06)
      The private sector workers of Sri Lanka are required by law to transfer 23% of their incomes to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) every month, towards their retirement savings. The EPF ...

    • The Need for Governance-Linked State-Contingent IMF Programmes: A Third Way for Sri Lanka 

      Peiris, Udara (Colombo: DailyFT, Colombo: Daily Mirror, Online: International Banker, 2023-04-27)
      The recent sovereign default of Sri Lanka has once again brought attention to the effectiveness of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) approach. This programmes provides loans of short ...

    • Post-Covid19: Can the Sri Lankan apparel sector benefit from US-China decoupling? A statistical analysis 

      Abeysinghe, Subhashini; Arangala, Mathisha (National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka, 2021)
      The “US-China decoupling” has received much attention with the deterioration of US-China diplomatic and economic ties under the Trump administration. US firms seeking to reduce their reliance on China offers an economic ...

    • Restoring Economic Stability in Sri Lanka: An Overview of the IMF Extended Fund Facility 

      Peiris, Udara; Rajkulendran, Raj Prabu (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-04-13)
      On March 20, 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board approved Sri Lanka's 17th IMF programme, under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, aimed at addressing the significant economic challenges faced by ...

    • Restructuring Domestic Debt Must Be Credible, Fast, Comprehensive 

      Peiris, Udara (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-06-08)
      With the possibility of restructuring domestic debt increasing, there are concerns about the impact of such a restructuring on the financial markets. A limited restructuring, in which only government debt held by the Central ...

    • Schrodinger’s Banks: The Immediate Need for Policies to Ensure Financial Stability 

      Peiris, Udara (Colombo: Daily Mirror, 2023-09-14)
      Sri Lanka is entering into a new, dangerous phase in its economic recovery. Although macroeconomic stabilisation has made progress, financial stabilisation needs immediate attention. The combination of covid-era loans and ...

    • Social and Household Networks in Sri Lanka: Does Networking Create a Disparity in Employment Outcomes 

      Perera, Mihindu (Social Science Research Network, 2019-11-15)
      This paper estimates the impact of social and household networks on employment outcomes in Sri Lanka.The results indicate that social networks, measured by language choice and locality, improve employment outcomes by ...