Browsing VR Insights by Title

Now showing items 33-52 of 73

    • Justice in Slow Motion Corrodes Sri Lanka's Economy 

      Verité Insights;
      Econ Team       (2013-07)
      The Insight discusses three aspects regarding the inherent lengthy delays in the Sri Lankan court system. First, delays in dispute resolution are costly—and not merely in legal fees, but in investments and initiatives ...

    • Making Public Data Public: Sri Lanka Misses its Own Targets While India Races Ahead 

      Verité Insights;Vol. 09, No. 04
      Razick, Salma; Munas, Hasna; de Mel, Nishan       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2021-07)
      The Department of Census and Statistics aims to be the ‘leader in the region’ in producing and providing timely statistical information. However, this insight shows, it has failed in providing public access to data in three ...

    • More of the Same: Budget 2016 increases protection and dependence on trade taxes 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-12-08)
      Sri Lanka was amongst the early movers in trade and economic liberalisation in South Asia. However, this initiative was somewhat backtracked upon in the past 10 years. This insight points out that, despite the claims, the ...

    • The new Ministers of Finance: Will their budget keep its promises? 

      VR Insight;August 2017
      Abeysinghe, Subhashini       (Colombo: Verite Research, 2017-08)
      An analysis of past budgets revel large deviations between budgeted allocations and actual expenditure. This shows that expectations set by the government during the budget speech are not honoured. This Insight analyses ...

    • Parliament and Cabinet Needs Reliable Economic Analysis 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-06-10)
      A regular feature of Sri Lanka’s public debates and writing on economic issues is that they are infused with factual inaccuracies or claims that are quite misleading. This reflects poor political and public understanding ...

    • Parliament should have a formula for regulating cigarettes 

      VR Insights;Vol. 2, No. 11
      Fernando, Nilangika       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-06)
      Variations in the tobacco excise tax affects Rs. 10s of billions in government revenue. Taxation and pricing have been inconsistent. This insight explains how the lack of a consistent method allows wide discretion to ...

    • Policy Needed on Environment: REDD+ is a plus 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-03-14)
      The prime minister of Sri Lanka made a policy statement on 5th November 2013 to indicate the future priorities of the new government. It had over 70 inspirational statements indicating a wide array of issues and subjects ...

    • The post war growth bump has hit the ceiling 

      Verité Insights;
      Econ Team       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2013-08)
      This article explores the question of whether Sri Lanka could expect higher sustained GDP growth post-war and concludes that the post-war bump-up is over for the time being. It suggests that the high growth is unsustainable ...

    • Quantifying the COVID Clean-up of Air Quality in Colombo 

      Verité Insights;
      Dhammapala, Ranil; Basnayake, Ashani       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2021-09-06)
      This Insight quantifies the improvements in air quality in Colombo during periods of Covid19 related restrictions and reveals that the Covid19 restrictions have led to a 60% reduction in the average duration of time that ...

    • Reducing the Gap in Understanding Sri Lanka’s Gender Gap 

      Verité Insights;Vol. 09, No. 01
      Fernando, Sachintha       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2021-03)
      The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) is a composite index that measures the extent of gender-based gaps in and among countries and tracks progress towards reducing these gaps over time. Sri Lanka is ...

    • Retirement Funds Face Regressive Taxation in Sri Lanka 

      Verite Insights;Vol. 12, No.02
      Rajkulendran, Raj Prabu       (Colombo: Verite Research, 2023-09)
      In September 2023, Sri Lanka became the only country to restructure local currency debt by exclusively targeting retirement savings funds, excluding all others. This was justified by claiming that retirement savings were ...

    • Reviving Exports: The Relevance of Export Finance=අපනයන ප්‍රවර්ධනය සදහා අපනයන මූල්‍යකරණ පහසුකම්වල ඇති වැදගත්කම 

      VR Insights;Vol. 3, No. 16
      Fernando, Nilangika; Gnanasampanthen, Revathy       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-09)
      This Insight analyses the importance of export finance as a tool to facilitate and promote exports in Sri Lanka. It identifies the bottlenecks that prevent effective use of export finance in the country and provides ...

    • Solving the dilemma of export diversification 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-03-19)
      Sri Lanka’s exports are flagging in two ways: first, the exports to GDP ratio is on the decline; second, Sri Lanka’s share in world exports is on the decline. The second is important in understanding the problem: it tells ...

    • Sri Lanka Losing Ground in Investment and Trade Freedoms 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-09-29)
      This Insight shows two worrying trends in the Trade and Investment Freedoms of Sri Lanka, using the 2015 Index of Global Economic Freedom to derive the analysis. First is that although the country’s Investment and Trade ...

    • Sri Lanka Tourism: What got us here, won’t get us there 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-04-23)
      Sri Lanka has doubled its tourist arrivals since 2010, which is credited to the peaceful environment in the country following the ending of the war together with the ongoing strategic investments in the tourism sector, new ...

    • The Sri Lankan economy needs a better bureaucracy, not just a better Cabinet of Ministers 

      Insights;Vol. 4, No. 01
      Munas, Hasna       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-05)
      There are several causes to the problems facing Sri Lanka’s economy. The problem of bureaucratic inefficiency is exemplified by this case study: finding information about trade regulations is a significant barrier to ...

    • Sri Lanka’s Competitiveness is Stagnating: Efficiency is the issue 

      Verité Insights;
      Verité Research       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-10-13)
      The 2015 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) of the World Economic Forum shows that Sri Lanka is ranked 68 out of 140 countries. Compared to last year, Sri Lanka has improved its ranking by five places. This article provides ...

    • Sri Lanka’s Economic Competitiveness: A Microcosm of its Politics? 

      Insight;Vol.5, No. 01
      Fernando, Sachintha       (2018-03)
      The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), ranks the competitiveness of economies. The GCI score is calculated using two types of indicators: objective (or measurable) indicators and sentiment (or subjective) indicators. ...

    • Sri Lanka’s international borrowing costs are not declining 

      VR Insights;Vol. 2, No. 19
      Econ Team       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-11)
      The government first raised international debt through bonds in October 2007. Since then several international bonds have been issued to feed the government’s twin demands: financing its spending and propping up foreign ...

    • Sri Lanka’s post war growth: Still stuck in an unsustainable strategy 

      VR Insights;Vol. 4, No. 01
      Munas, Hasna       (Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-01)
      Sri Lanka has been driving post-war growth in boom and bust cycles on the trade deficit; and fiscal measures have been used, especially spending on construction, to offset the bust cycles. This insight explains how this ...