Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Leader seeks power boost from parliament poll
News, Anusha Ondaatjie & Dan Strumpf, Published on 16/11/2024
» Sri Lanka began counting votes in a parliamentary election that will decide whether the nation's outsider leftist president will be able to fulfill his ambitious pledges to combat corruption and rewrite an unpopular International Monetary Fund loan programme.
New IMF debt deal needs a rejig
Oped, C P Chandrasekhar & Martín Guzmán & Jayati Ghosh & Charles Abugre, Published on 03/10/2024
» Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka's president, recently lost his re-election bid after voters overwhelmingly rejected the debt-restructuring deals he negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors. Instead, Sri Lankans elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the left-wing National People's Power (NPP) alliance and a vocal critic of IMF-imposed austerity measures, who has vowed to renegotiate the country's agreement with the fund.
Candidates vying to lead economy out of crisis
News, Anusha Ondaatjie, Published on 21/09/2024
» Sri Lanka's upcoming presidential election has become a referendum on a US$3 billion (99.1 billion baht) International Monetary Fund loan programme that has helped to pull the island nation out of its worst economic crisis since independence. The contest pits the incumbent president, who negotiated the bailout, against the country's main opposition leader -- both members of the Sri Lankan political elite -- and a Marxist politician waging a populist campaign. The three have put contrasting views before voters over how to steer the South Asian nation past the crisis.
Sri Lanka's dangerous debt crisis
Oped, Jayati Ghosh & Kanchana N Ruwanpura, Published on 20/09/2023
» More than a year after the mass protest movement known as the Aragalaya ousted Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankans have once again taken to the streets.
Sri Lanka needs a currency board
News, R M Manivannan, Published on 09/05/2022
» The war in Ukraine has generated an economic tidal wave, which is crashing over countries near and far. Among the more far-flung is Sri Lanka, where surging food and fuel prices have supercharged a downward spiral that was already underway. Now, the island is being rocked by street protests, and every member of the cabinet -- except Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- has resigned. To save Sri Lanka from economic collapse and socio-political disaster will require radical action.
China's Sri Lankan push for power
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 31/10/2018
» Most people in the island nation of Sri Lanka and its Asian neighbours were stunned last week when President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe -- and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the populist strongman who had ruled Sri Lanka for a decade before the scrappy alliance between Mr Sirisena and Mr Wickremesinghe forced him out of power in 2015.