Category: Local News

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power yesterday emphasised that political reforms need to accompany economic reforms in Sri Lanka.

Fitch on Thursday downgraded Sri Lanka’s Long-Term local-currency debt rating by two notches to “CC” from “CCC”, citing a probable local-currency debt default in the face of high interest costs and tight domestic financing conditions.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has not requested an electricity tariff revision so far and there is no requirement for a tariff revision at the moment, the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Janaka Ratnayake said.

As a major shareholder of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China has been encouraging the IMF and other international financial institutes to promptly support Sri Lanka to deal with the current economic crisis, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka said.

Sri Lanka crossed the billion dollar milestone in earnings from tourism in October when the country earned US$ 75.6 million from the trade, which is providing a glimmer of hope for the country’s economy beset by acute shortages of foreign currency since the middle of last year.

Having participated in the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt earlier this month, President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a statement on Tuesday (November 29) on its outcome.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has announced the official exchange rates for 30th November with the US dollar buying rate recorded at Rs. 361.23.

Two circulars that were issued on the official attire of staff grade officers in the state sector of Sri Lanka have been revoked.

A man died and his wife was injured after being brutally stabbed with a sharp weapon at the Wewala Junction in Hikkaduwa this morning (November 30).

Sri Lanka owed Chinese lenders $7.4 billion – nearly a fifth of its public external debt – by the end of last year, calculations by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) published on Wednesday showed, an estimate higher than many others.

Sri Lanka’s merchandise export performance for the month of October contracted by 8.18 percent Year-on-Year (YoY), however, cumulative exports for the first 10 months of the year surpassed the earnings fetched in the corresponding period of 2021.

Six containers containing 153,375 kgs of milk powder stuck at the Colombo Port which had been imported in violation of import-export regulations, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.

Sri Lankans can now hold $10,000 worth of the Indian rupee (INR) in a physical form, though the INR would not be legal tender in Sri Lanka, after India approved a Sri Lankan request to designate the INR as the foreign currency.

China welcomes Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Sabry’s rebuttal of the narrative of the so-called Chinese “debt trap” in Sri Lanka, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said here on Monday.

The third secretary of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Oman, E. Kushan was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers upon his arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake this morning (November 29).

The Independent Engineers’ Association of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) warns that the country will have to experience the longest power cut in history if sufficient stocks of coal are not received before April 15.