Browsing by Title

Sri Lanka’s Export Problem: Not Concentration, But Composition

Abeysinghe, Subhashini; Munas, Hasna (Colombo: Verité Research, 2017-08)

Sri Lanka's exports are heavily concentrated in a few markets and a few products. The government's recognition of export diversification as an important policy strategy to revive exports indicates that both market and ...

Sri Lanka’s Fitch Credit Rating Has Been Downgraded 7 Times During the Last 7 years (May 2015 – May 2022)

Public Finance Infographics;
Econ Team (2022-05)

Sri Lanka’s credit rating has been downgraded 7 times over the course of 7 years. 5 of those downgrades occurred since April 2020. In contrast, its regional peers have maintained their credit ratings. The recent downgrade ...

Sri Lanka’s Imports Were 4% Higher in 2021 When Compared to 2019

Public Finance Infographics;
Econ Team (Colombo: Verite Research, 2022-03-03)

Sri Lanka’s Imports have grown by 4%, (USD 700 Million) from 2019 to 2021. One of the main contributors for this growth is the increase in the Medical and Pharmaceuticals imports by 60% which amounts to USD 330 Million. ...

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 ...

Sri Lanka’s Revenue to GDP Ratio Reaches Its Lowest Level Since 1959

Public Finance Infographics;
Econ Team (2022-06)

Data on Sri Lanka’s revenue to GDP ratio is available from 1959 onwards. The average tax to GDP ratio from 1959 to 2021 is 16%. In 2021 the tax to GDP ratio dropped to 8%, which the lowest ratio since 1959 and is half ...

Sri Lanka’s Short-Term Outflows Exceed Usable Reserves

Public Finance Infographics;
Econ Team (Colombo: Verite Research, 2022-02-15)

Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves have been consistently declining since June 2019 and as of January 2022, usable foreign exchange reserves stand at USD 792 Mn, while the twelve-month outflows at end of 2021 stand at USD ...

Sri Lanka’s tea industry – too long in adolescence, it’s time to grow up

VR Insights;
Econ Team (Colombo: Verité Research, 2016-02-26)

Tea sector wage negotiations periodically go into deadlock. There are political reasons for this situation, but also an overarching economic one: global tea prices have declined – as it periodically happens – and the ...

Sri Lanka’s Tourism: Competing with the region

Verité Insights;
Verité Research (Colombo: Verité Research, 2015-05-20)

This Insight looks at a different dimension of the problem of growing tourism in Sri Lanka using the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) to derive the analysis. This global index assesses ...

Sri Lanka’s Trade Liberalisation: What you see is NOT what you get

Verité Insights;
Verité Research (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-01-08)

Sri Lanka’s 2014 Budget claims a continuous commitment by the government to maintain a liberal, consistent and simple trade regime. The budget speech puts it this way: “A four band tariff structure presently in place is ...

State Funding for Maternity Leave in Sri Lanka - A No-brainer

Verité Insights;Vol. 8, No. 1
Sumanthiran, Shiloh (Colombo: Verité Research, 2020-09)

Women in the 20-39 age cohort are uniquely and severely disadvantaged in the labour market in Sri Lanka. This disadvantage is linked to the current policy of placing the full cost of maternity leave benefits (MLBs) on ...

State of emergency: Voting breakdown – 27 July 2022

Parliamentary Research Team (Manthri.lk, 2022-08-02)

These set of infographics show how the MPs vote for the vote on state of emergency imposed by the newly appointed President Ranil Wickremesinghe. 120 votes received in favour and 63 votes received against. 42 were absent ...

State of the Budget Report 2022: Assessment on Whether the Expenditure Allocations and Taxation Policies are in Line with the Government’s Policy

De Silva, Dinuk; Mubarak, Faiq; Musammil, Miflal; Siyambalapitiya, Sumini; Randeniya, Ishini; Samarasinghe, Dharini (Colombo: Verite Research, 2022-03)

This is the second report in a series of two reports on Sri Lanka's central government budget for the year 2022. The report assesses whether the expenditure allocations and taxation policies are in line with the government's ...

State-Owned Enterprise Reforms in Sri Lanka: The Way Forward

Knight, Malathy; Guruge, Aneesha; Cham, Maria Rowena (Manila : Asian Development Bank Institute, 2017-10)

The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of Sri Lanka’s extensive SOE sector. The sector has witnessed episodes of nationalization and privatization and has been subject to varied degrees of competition. Yet, despite ...

Statement which describes the ministerial responsibility

Manthri Team (Manthri.lk - Research Team, 2019-05-15)

Strengthening Parliament Critical for Credible Budgets

Verité Insights;
Verité Research (Colombo: Verité Research, 2014-12)

Sri Lanka’s budgets show considerable variation between publicly declared budget allocations and actual expenditure on line items. This gap can create a credibility problem. There is a specific section in Sri Lankan laws ...

Strengthening the Presidency; Weakening the Democracy: A Brief Analysis of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka

Jayasinha, Uween (Verite Research, 2021-01-21)

On 22 October 2020, the Twentieth Amendment (20A) to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was enacted. The 20A reversed much of the reforms introduced by the preceding Nineteenth Amendment (19A) to the Constitution, with the ...