Sri Lanka’s Economic Crossroads: Resetting the Trajectory
After one of the deepest economic crises in its post-independence history, Sri Lanka is now entering a fragile phase of recovery. Inflation has cooled, foreign reserves have stabilised, and GDP growth has returned to positive territory. But beneath the surface, structural vulnerabilities remain. The question is no longer whether the country has survived the worst […]
Port City Colombo Now: Rules Tightened, Utilities Live, Proof Point is Speed
Port City Colombo is closer to “investment-ready” than at any time since 2021. The rulebook has been clarified, phase-one utilities are complete, and Cabinet has green-lit amendments to sharpen the regime. The next question is simple: can the zone deliver fast, predictable approvals and real operating tenants over the next 12 months? Governance: same backbone, […]
Why Your Grocery Bill Feels High – The Everyday Mechanics Behind Food Prices in Sri Lanka
Grocery Bill or Food prices are not random. They reflect a stack of policy choices and costs: VAT and para-tariffs at the border, a volatile rupee, fuel and electricity prices, weak logistics, market opacity, and post-harvest losses. When small frictions compound across the chain, the final shelf price jumps. Durable relief comes from cleaner taxes, […]
Media Freedom and Disinformation: Balancing Rights, Responsibility, and Resilience
Media freedom protects the public’s right to know Disinformation exploits the same openness to mislead. The tension is real but solvable with clear principles, strong institutions, and practical tools. A robust information space is not built by censorship; it is built by transparency, accountability, and media literacy that makes falsehoods unprofitable and hard to scale. […]
Sri Lanka’s Public Service Pension: How It Works, Where It Came From, and What Comes Next
What the scheme is Sri Lanka’s Public Service Pension Scheme (PSPS) covers permanent central-government employees who complete the qualifying service and retire under the stipulated rules. It is defined-benefit and pay-as-you-go: benefits are set by regulation and paid from current revenues rather than from an invested fund. Separate regulations govern teachers, police, and the armed […]
Sri Lanka’s Road Safety: A Clearer Picture Through Data
Sri Lanka’s Road Safety | Understanding how, when, and why crashes happen is key to reducing fatalities and serious injuries. This article uses a demonstration dataset for Jan 2024 – Sep 2025 to show how regular crash reporting can drive faster, smarter interventions. Monthly Crash Trends Crashes hover around 2,200–2,600 per month. This pattern reflects […]
Sri Lanka’s Debt Path After Restructuring: Why Stock Relief Is Not Enough
Sri Lanka has crossed the hardest miles of debt restructuring. Eurobonds were exchanged in December 2024. Bilateral deals have advanced with Japan, India, and others. According to IMF Mission Chief Evan Papageorgiou, only about US$500 million of the US$28 billion “under the perimeter” remains to be finalised. That is real progress. It is not, by […]
Sri Lanka’s Fertiliser Subsidy: What It Solves, What It Breaks, and How to Fix It
Why this matters Fertiliser policy shapes food prices, farmer incomes, the budget, and the environment. Sri Lanka has swung from heavy input subsidies to the 2021 ban on chemical fertiliser and back to subsidised supply and cash-type vouchers. Getting this right is central to stable rice prices and rural incomes, but also to fiscal consolidation […]
Essential medicines in Sri Lanka: where the chain breaks today
Sri Lanka still runs a fragile medicine supply chain. Imports account for most items, so any policy, forex, or logistics shock turns into stock-outs at the ward. The crisis of 2022 exposed systemic weaknesses. Many remain. The following map shows the binding constraints today and the quickest levers to relieve them. 1) Planning and demand […]
Overhauling Sri Lanka’s Outdated Statistics Law: A Blueprint for Credible Data and Modern Governance
Sri Lanka’s official statistics still rest on the Statistics Ordinance of 1957. That law was written for a world of paper surveys and manual tabulation. In 2025 it no longer supports the country’s need for accurate, timely and trusted data. An overhaul of the national statistics law is overdue. Why the 1957 Law Fails The […]
