- Cabinet spokesman says Cabinet approved Sri Lanka’s “downgrade” from middle-income to a low-income country: President’s Office says Sri Lanka will remain a middle-income country, and that the Government is pursuing a temporary “reverse graduation” policy.
- Foreign Minister Ali Sabry admits full responsibility for the “debt default” done when he was Finance Minister: says “world renowned experts” Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Shantha Devarajan and Shamalee Cooray advised President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and him to announce the default early, so that the default would then not be a “hard” default.
- Permanent High Court at Bar orders release of former CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran and 9 others from charges in the first Treasury Bond case: states the charges cannot be continued under the Public Properties Act: majority verdict issued by Judges Sanjeewa Morais, Damith Thotawatte and Namal Ballale.
- High profile business woman Thilini Priyamali accused of defrauding people and misappropriating millions of rupees, in a well publicised “fraud case” involving many famous persons.
- Federation of Health Professionals warn of trade union action if the retirement age limit is extended only for one particular profession in the health service.
- Rs.1 bn worth of cheques returned on a daily basis on average in 2Q22: rise of 30% compared to 1Q22, with the economy contracting by 8.4% in 2Q22.
- Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka Past President Engineer Ranjith Gunathilake states the construction industry will never move forward when interest rates are at 28-30%: also says people don’t use their money for development purposes and industry workers are out of work.
- United Nations’ Development Programme estimates Sri Lanka and 53 other countries which account for more than half of the world’s poorest people, need immediate debt relief to avoid even more extreme poverty and heightened impacts of climate change.
- Transport Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardane says “digital” driving licences will be issued due to lack of materials to print new driver’s licences: also says the situation will ease by the end of the year.
- State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe and CB Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasingh meet IMF Deputy MD Gita Gopinath in Washington: it’s now 7 months since Sri Lanka sought IMF assistance: during that period all bridging finance has also stopped completely.
SRI LANKA ORIGINAL NARRATIVE SUMMARY: 12/10
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