By Saman Indrajith
The 2020 Central Bank annual report presented to Parliament last week is a testimony to the fact that the country’s economy is in dire straits, says the JVP.
Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Pelawatte yesterday, JVP Politburo member and former MP Sunil Handunnetti alleged that the government was using the funds meant for the development of the country for its projects to cling on to power. “The Central Bank report confirms many warnings we have been issuing in the recent past. The country’s economy is sliding into a recession and there would be a crash soon. The economy recorded a growth of -1.6% during the first quarter of 2020. That was before the onset of the pandemic. The situation worsened in the second quarter. The government is citing the pandemic as the reason for the sharp economic downturn.
By Rathindra Kuruwita
The government has stockpiled millions of PCR kits that are low in sensitivity and they may be incapable of identifying new variants that are spreading in Sri Lanka, President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS,) Ravi Kumudesh says.
Kumudesh said that out of the four variants , three had already spread in the country. However, there was still only one gene sequencing machine in the country to detect them, he said.
“Our inability to identify variants that are entering Sri Lanka has caused many issues. Another problem is that the PCR kits we are using might not be the best to detect new variants.”
By Sanath Nanayakkare
The internationally accepted practice was to classify domestic debt and external debt based on the resident or non-resident status of the holder of such debt, Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara, the Director Economic Research at the Central Bank told
The Island yesterday.
Dr. Amarasekera said so when he was asked to explain why the Central Bank had decided to reclassify US$ 2.2 billion worth of international sovereign bonds held by local entities as domestic debt.
“We did not have accurate information on ISB holdings by the resident/non-resident status of the holder, and accordingly a new survey was commenced in 2020 to collect this information, and this survey is continued on a monthly basis. According to the survey, ISB holdings of resident banks was around USD 1.1 billion at end 2019, which increased to over USD 2.2 billion by end 2020. With this new information, adjustments were made to external debt for 2019 and 2020. This does not mean that they are not
Miguel Angel Card Ayuso Guixot
Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue has said that the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic would strengthen bonds of friendship and further unite people in service to the human family, adopting “a culture of dialogue as the path, mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.
The following is the text of the message issued by Miguel Angel Card Ayuso Guixot. MCCJ, President, to mark Vesak: On behalf of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. I am writing to YOU on the occasion of the feast of Vesak to offer my heartfelt greetings. It is my prayer that this annual Buddhist festival commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of Gautama Buddha may bring joy, serenity. and hope to the hearts of Buddhists throughout the world.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
The Influential Ontario Legislative Assembly has resolved that Sri Lanka subjected the Tamil community to genocide during the armed conflict. The Legislative Assembly voted in favour of Bill 104
(aka the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act),moved by Sri Lankan asylum seeker-turned Scarborough-Rouge Park member of Parliament Vijay Thanigasalam, at the third reading in the legislature, Canada and the UK-based sources told
The Island. The first reading took place on April 30th, 2019, and the second on May 16, 2019.
A key member of the Sri Lanka Core Group, at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, Canada backed the vote on March 23, 2021 against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. Argentina, Armenia, Austria, the Bahamas, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Italy, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uruguay voted against Sri Lanka.