Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ho
Ravi Karunanayake, Sri Lanka's Finance Minister.
China Review
China became Sri Lankas largest investor, top government lender and
second-biggest trading partner under Rajapaksa. Projects include a
proposed $1.4 billion complex the size of Monaco on reclaimed land in
Colombo port.
What we are telling the Chinese is nobody is prevented from doing projects
Real Situation
Sri Lanka last turned to the IMF after the civil war ended in 2009 to bolster
its international reserves. It received the final tranche of a $2.6 billion IMF
loan in 2012.
The IMF projected that Sri Lankas $67 billion economy would grow 6.5
percent in 2015, compared with 7 percent the previous year. It had
averaged more than 7 percent growth since 2009, one of the fastest rates
in South Asia.
Karunanayake, a former Sri Lankan commerce minister, said the finance
ministry was also collating the real situation on Sri Lankas gross
domestic product and debt. He had previously served in the cabinet in 2001
under a government led by the United National Party, the largest in
Sirisenas disparate coalition.
Karunanayake is scheduled on Jan. 29 to announce an interim budget thats
Budget Deficit
Sirisenas backers, including free-market capitalists, hard-line Buddhist
parties and the islands main Tamil and Muslim groupings, may prompt
changes in fiscal and economic policies that could erode Sri Lankas credit
standing, Standard & Poors said after the vote.
The overall budget deficit will not be increased, Karunanayake said. We
will not burden the people. We are reducing costs, eradicating corruption.
He said the government hasnt decided yet on whether to privatize more
companies, a policy endorsed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe
during two previous stints in the role.
We will have a transparent environment for foreign investors,
Karunanayake said. We will maintain macro-economic fundamentals
conducive for investors.
To contact the reporters on this story: Asantha Sirimanne in Colombo
atasirimanne@bloomberg.net; Anusha Ondaatjie in Colombo
at anushao@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate
at dtenkate@bloomberg.netJeanette Rodrigues
Posted by Thavam