Opposition MP Harsha de Silva has warned that Sri Lanka is facing a serious economic challenge due to a shortage of US dollar liquidity in the domestic market and the impact of new tariff policies introduced by the United States. He urged the government to move beyond statements and immediately negotiate formal economic agreements with the US.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media in Colombo on Friday (05), Dr. Harsha de Silva stated that the country’s current economic situation is not favorable and has become increasingly severe.<\/p>\n
According to him, the value of the US dollar has risen to around Rs. 341, while in the black market it is reportedly being traded at over Rs. 345. He argued that this reflects a gradual decline in public confidence in the government.<\/p>\n
He noted that markets operate largely on confidence, and when that confidence weakens, markets tend to decline. Although higher interest rates helped stabilize the situation temporarily, the Sri Lankan rupee has once again started to depreciate.<\/p>\n
Dr. de Silva pointed out several reasons behind the situation. Banks are required to settle payments for short-term letters of credit in the coming weeks, which increases demand for dollar reserves. At the same time, many Sri Lankans living abroad are reportedly delaying remittances in anticipation of further depreciation of the rupee.<\/p>\n
He also claimed that some exporters are holding back foreign earnings instead of bringing them into the country, largely because confidence in the government’s ability to manage the exchange rate has weakened.<\/p>\n
In addition, he said global factors such as ongoing international conflicts have affected Sri Lanka, as they have many other countries. He specifically highlighted new trade policies introduced by US President Donald Trump, warning that Sri Lanka could face an additional 2.5% tariff burden.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. de Silva, several countries have avoided similar impacts by negotiating reciprocal agreements with the United States. While Sri Lanka has spoken about holding discussions with the US, he said there has been little visible progress so far.<\/p>\n
He urged the government to engage in meaningful negotiations with Washington and secure agreements that would protect Sri Lanka from potential additional tariffs.<\/p>\n
Dr. de Silva further warned that a stronger US dollar would inevitably increase the prices of goods and services within Sri Lanka. While he believes President Anura Kumara Dissanayake understands the seriousness of the situation, he cautioned that the challenges facing the economy should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opposition MP Harsha de Silva has warned that Sri Lanka is facing a serious economic challenge due to a shortage of US dollar liquidity in the domestic market and the impact of new tariff policies introduced by the United States. He urged the government to move beyond statements and immediately negotiate formal economic agreements with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2219,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}