Category Archives: IMF

Sri Lanka’s Topsy-Turvy Economy in the Last Decade

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*…. with her choice of title being Sri Lanka Back as Donor Darling Ignores the BRICS” and a sub-title that runs thusFrance’s Macron and the US Fish in the Indian Ocean …. presented here with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi 

Sri Lanka continues to swing wildly between being a ‘Donor Darling’ flooded with foreign ‘aid’ and ‘advisors’ on the one hand to a ‘bankrupt’ pariah or outcast on the other. Last year, the strategic Indian Ocean Island went from South Asia’s wealthiest nation with the best social and human development indicators to a beggar—humiliated and shunned by the ‘international community.’ This was after staging its first-ever Sovereign Default due to a Eurobond debt trap and purported lack of US dollars. The default triggered rapid rupee depreciation and instantly beggared citizens amid a distracting transnationally networked, remote-controlled ‘Aragalaya’ protest operation led by social media influencers. Ironically, there was a blockade on fuel shipments to the country amid the United States Marine’s ‘Sea Vision’ training program for the Sri Lanka Navy.

Newly formed Sri Lankan Marine Corps gets 241 years of experience in under a week. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob L. – Photo: 2023  .

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For Lanka: Addressing Srinivasan’s Statement on the IMF Programme

Krishna Srinivasan’s Address  in Colombo in His Capacity as Director of Asia and Pacific Department, IMF, May 15, 2023

What does this challenging global environment mean for Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka, as you know, has been facing a severe crisis (A) involving­ back-to-back economic shocks. We have been deeply concerned about the impact of the crisis on the Sri Lankan people, particularly the poor and vulnerable groups, and about the economic costs arising from the delay (B) in the country’s access to external financing.

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Sri Lanka Crunched within Cold War Manouevres?

TPI Media, “The Hidden Hand of US Influence in Sri Lanka: Cold War Strategies Revisited | CIA,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUuMZiDSXg

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Sri Lanka’s Woes: “Truthseeker’s” Insights in April 2022

An EMAIL NOTE from Gus Mathews in UK, 25 March 2023 **

This a fascinating read that throws some light into the present-day financial woes of the current predicament in Sri Lanka. It was published some time ago, but it is as illuminating as ever.

REFERRING TO https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/27/the-yahapaalana-legacy-and-three-major-international-events-processes-driving-sri-lanka-to-bankruptcy/#more-61140

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Prsessures on Sri Lanka: Weerasekera’s Analysis in Lucid Prose

Michael Roberts

By pure chance I came across a paperback book of 280 pages published by Dharshan Weerasekera via Sarasavi Publisher in 2020 that is entitled Sri Lanka’s Future Challenges and the Quest for a New Constitution. Further searches indicated that he had received university education in USA and had published a battery of books (now listed in Thuppahi at ………….. https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/24/dharshan-weerasekeras-array-of-essays-and-books.

 

 

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Dharshan Weerasekera’s Array of Essays and Books

Author Archive for Dharshan Weerasekera

International Law Implications of Canadian Parliament’s Motion on ‘Tamil Genocide’

Saturday, November 26th, 2022

By Dharshan Weerasekera Courtesy The Island On 18 May 2022, the Canadian House of Commons adopted without opposition a motion introduced by Rep. Gary Anandasangaree recognising 18 May of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” (www.parliament.ca). This follows a Bill adopted by the Ontario legislature in May 2021 calling for the week following May […]

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The Economic Sinking of Island Lanka: The IMF-US Monsters

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, whose preferred title is “Alternatives to the IMF and the future of the Welfare State: Beyond the blame game between Superpowers”

The economic proxy war between the rising and fading Superpowers is escalating and expanding in the “Asian 21st Century.’ This was apparent in an (un)diplomatic exchange between Chinese and United States officials over the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) debt restructuring delays in Sri Lanka which was the venue of the recent CARAT/MAREX war games. These happened in the run up to the country’s February 4 commemoration of 75 years of ‘Lost Independence, Democracy and economic sovereignty’ as a commentator put it.

 

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Colonialism Anew. Sri Lanka enmeshed in Western Debt ‘Nets’

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in Colombo Telegraph,  3 October 2022, where the title reads: The Paris Club, Dollar Debt Colonialism & Asia’s New “Donors”: Reforming The International Aid Architecture?”

As the visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF), team boarded a return flight to Washington DC after a week in Colombo, the Paris Club, stepped in though a revolving door at the strategic Indian Ocean island’s Bandaranaike International Airport in the first week of September. 

The signing of a ‘Staff Level Agreement’ with the deeply unpopular ‘Ranil Rajapaksa’ regime accused of Economic Crimes was announced before the IMF team’s departure. However, the contents of the agreement like the IMF’s Debt Sustainability Analysis Report on Sri Lanka remain shrouded in mystery except for news of a $2.9 billion loan to be disbursed over 4 years!

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Multi-faceted Campaign against the SL Government Crackdown on the Aragalaya

HRW …. 31 August 2022 …………. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/31/sri-lanka-end-use-terrorism-law-against-protesters 

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Adani Group from India is A Potential “Black Rock” for Sri Lanka

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, in The Morning Leader, 24 August 2022, with this title “IMF privatising and the Adani Greenwash”

Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been rocked by massive protests against austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Structural reforms with austerity have resulted in soaring inflation, currency depreciation, poverty, and inequality that is eroding the Argentinean society and economy, while enabling the bailout of private lenders and vulture funds like BlackRock.

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