- US Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland meets President Ranil Wickremesinghe: pledges US support for Sri Lanka’s recovery efforts: says US expects China to provide “credible assurances” to Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring: reports show loans of USD 2.5 bn was on the verge of being disbursed by China when Sri Lanka hurriedly announced a debt default on 12th April 2022.
- Workers’ remittances in 2022 amounts to USD 3,789 mn, in comparison to USD 5,491 mn in 2021: records decline of 31.0%: recovery noted in latter part of the year, with remittances increasing to USD 476 mn during December 2022, in comparison to USD 384 mn in the previous month.
- Mahaweli Authority says it is unable to release adequate volumes of water from reservoirs for the uninterrupted supply of electricity: reiterates only water required for the usual generation of electricity with the scheduled power cuts, can be supplied.
- John Keells Holdings Chief Krishan Balendra urges Govt to expedite “privatisation”: says that was done by countries when faced with similar challenges to address structural and governance issues.
- Govt says the IMF has informed that the Chinese 2-year debt moratorium was not adequate to proceed with the IMF programme and that the IMF insists on a “uniform programme” for all bilateral creditors: analysts say IMF is unreasonably withholding support even after almost all prior conditions demanded by them have been met: it’s now over 10 1/2 months since Sri Lanka approached the IMF.
- Social activist and YouTuber Sepal Amarasinghe who is in remand custody for allegedly causing a disturbance among the Buddhist community by making insulting comments about the Sacred Tooth Relic, informs Court he is ready to make an apology over the statement in question.
- Cabinet approves the conferment of the honorary title ‘Sri Lankabhimanya’ on Deshabandu Karu Jayasuriya: ‘Sri Lankabhimanya’ is the highest civil honour in Sri Lanka.
- CPC and LIOC increase the price of Octane 92 Petrol by Rs.30 per litre: new prices – Petrol Rs.400, Diesel Rs.405, & Kerosene Rs.355: in March 2022, Petrol was Rs.177, Diesel Rs.121, & Kerosene Rs.87.
- Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini says the Catholic Church will boycott the 75th Independence Day celebrations on 4th February: also says Govt’s move to allocate Rs.200 mn for the event is a crime against the people and a huge waste.
- Transparency International ranks Sri Lanka at the 101st place in it’s Corruption Perceptions Index of 2022 with a score of 36 out of 100: SL’s ranking is alongside Panama, Albania, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Ecuador, Peru & Thailand.
