lester Friday, 10 March 2023 01:05 PM
Our reserves are only 2.1 billion out of which 1.5 billion is credit swap from China we cant use for imports. Other 500 belongs to India we only use essential item imports from India. Our true reserves are only 100 million at most. Money we are getting from IMF is another loan to pay previous loans. Tell me how the dollar came down? Its best that we don’t get any loans from IMF at all. Wait 10 years and all these countries will convert these debts to grants when they become unrecoverable and we will immerge debt free. Ranils IMF loan will only restart the debt payment cycle. We save millions of dollars every month by not paying debts which we can use to build our own reserves. This a once in a lifetime opportunity wipe our debts if we don’t get the IMF loan let the country stay in default for few more years until they erase our debts. Only thing other countries can do is not give us any more loans which we don’t need and cannot seize our assets like a bank. Its foolish to get IMF loan
Henry the eight Friday, 10 March 2023 01:13 PM
Again, this is all a hoax as the SL Rupee can’t be traded anywhere on the planet. In order to strengthen the Rupee they would have to buy SL Rupees in the market and sell foreign currency – which they don’t have. As the SL Rupee can only be bought and sold in SL, who is the counterparty? Nobody, as there is no market!!! Again, they fool everybody, hopefully the IMF knows that. I bet SL will get no money from the IMF in the near future as they know what is going on in this country.
sam Friday, 10 March 2023 01:41 PM
Artificial happiness for some
feroze Friday, 10 March 2023 02:18 PM
Lester- No country will write off debts because you are unable to repay it. Non payment is not a method of building reserves. I don’t understand which university if any you attended. By continuing to be a defaulter, all other countries will also black list SL and eventually we will not be able to carryout any trade with any country. Typical frog in a well island mentality- You must be a JVPer for sure
Dr. Thomas Friday, 10 March 2023 04:09 PM
Correctly said; not paying back loans, like going to a restaurant, enjoying ones dinner, then out from the backdoor and not settling the bill.
Saman Friday, 10 March 2023 02:26 PM
This is a total misleading machanism carried out by govt
Roshanaly Friday, 10 March 2023 02:42 PM
May be the trick played by the CB to bring back the hidden dollars to the market.
Ah Friday, 10 March 2023 02:45 PM
Don’t criticise or protest all the time without a proper reasoning. If the govt says the tax has to be implemented to steady the economy for a short period; lets support it. Make sure that the money collected is properly used. We had enough of these protests and critiques. A real curse. Bear for sometime and lets see what happens
lester Friday, 10 March 2023 03:26 PM
feroze – You must be a western minded person like Ranil to grab the IMF loan from your western masters without thinking about the consequences. World doesn’t operate on your university wisdom We are doing ok now without the IMF loan. Only thing IMF loan will do is put us in another debt cycle. How are you going to pay 50 billion dollars in debt with a 4 billion IMF loan? Is your own company ramping up production to increase the size of country GDP? We will do fine as a country in default than a country carrying 50 billion in debt. Will get free stuff like medicine as long as we are in default. Start paying debt, no more free stuff. Longer we owe them money, longer those politicians look like fools to their public for lending us money. Which is why they will turn these debts into grants in 10-15yrs. Once we build enough reserve to match the total rupees in circulation from money saved by not paying interest, we should hard peg our currency to USD making our economy clone of US economy
Punchi Friday, 10 March 2023 03:36 PM
All we got to do is take our rupee to the most sacred Buddhist temple in our paradise and have our most holiness Mahanayake do the necessary chants and prayers over it and it will appreciate in value instantaneously.
Ajith Friday, 10 March 2023 03:44 PM
A 1.4% fluctuation in a currency is neither here not there. Anyone involved in forex will know that this type of exchange rate movement day on day is no big deal, and quite normal for most major currencies.
one law one country horu plus Friday, 10 March 2023 03:45 PM
Do not forget what these illuminated ‘enlightened’ king’s-partials men, women and clergy have done to the economy and the working class societies. They neither shorten ‘sansara’ nor find nibbana but encircle former for them using sil cloths, robes and clocks to a size more than seven oceans….
S. Samarakoon Friday, 10 March 2023 04:01 PM
Lester is a brilliant economist !! May be a future NPP ..FM.
Nihal Friday, 10 March 2023 04:55 PM
SL rupees cannot appreciate against dollar this fast and again minimum export compared to pre Covid. What is going on with CB? Would it be a good idea to purchase Dollar for some potential gains in future?