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Primary and Budget Balances move in opposite directions as interest payments increase!

The Fiscal Management Report 2024 published by the Ministry of Finance, shows that the Primary Balance improved from LKR -317 Bn in 3rd quarter 2022 to a positive LKR 124 Bn in 3rd quarter 2023. The Budget Deficit, however,...

Sri Lanka's Government Revenue in 2021 Covered Only 41% of Expenditure

Government revenue in 2021 was only 41% of its expenditure, which was inadequate to cover even its recurrent expenditure. It falls short of the two largest recurrent expenditure components cumulatively - salaries & wages, and interest payments.

Government Revenue in 2020 – Not Sufficient to Pay Recurrent Obligations of Salaries and Interest

According to the Ministry of Finance, government revenue is expected to reduce from LKR 1,891 billion in 2019 to LKR 1,450 billion in 2020. Projected government revenue for 2020 will be less than 10% of GDP, among the lowest in the world. This change in revenue is large...

2020 Mid-year Fiscal Performance

Latest figures released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka show that revenue has fallen by 25% in the first half of 2020 compared to the first half of 2019. This has resulted in an increase of the budget deficit by 41% and debt by 8%.

Sri Lanka’s Fiscal Performance (2020 vs 2019)

The latest figures released by the Ministry of Finance show that the first quarter budget deficit has increased by 23% in 2020 compared to the first quarter in 2019. Revenue was dragged down by VAT and income taxes. Expenditure was largely stable except for a...

The budget deficit has increased in 2019: With lower revenue and higher expenditure

The recently released figures for 2019 show that government revenue has fallen from 13.4% of GDP in 2018 to 12.6% of GDP in 2019. Meanwhile, government expenditure has increased from 17.7% of GDP in 2018 to 19.4% of GDP in 2019. This has caused a significant increase in...

Consistent revenue shortfalls lead to more borrowings and less spending

The deviation in government revenue from the estimated figure has been increasing overtime. As a result, the government fell short of spending its budgeted expenditure and the budget balance deteriorated. The deviation in the...