Sri Lankan First Leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake presented the 2025 budget on Monday, the first of his government and the 79th in the country’s history.
The budget is seen as crucial for Dissanayake's attempts to ensure a sustainable recovery from the island's worst financial crisis in more than seven decades.
Sri Lanka aims to accelerate economic growth, expand free trade agreements (FTAs), and strengthen its digital economy as part of its 2025 budget, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced on Monday. The 2025 Budget focuses on stability, governance, investment-led growth, trade facilitation, and digital transformation.
The leftist Dissanayake said that he expects the economy to grow at 5 per cent in the medium term and aims to maintain low inflation, while also taking steps to keep exchange rates stable. Sri Lanka aims to transform its economy and commence debt repayments by 2028.
Sri Lanka will maintain a primary surplus of 2.3 per cent of GDP and the budget has been formulated to meet that target, proposed by Dissanayake, who is also the finance minister of Sri Lanka.
His government will ensure that Colombo will repay all its debt and expects a steady reduction in poverty levels in the South Asian nation. The country's bonds climbed as much as 0.5 cents, leaving the newly-restructured debt at their highest since their relaunch at the end of last year.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake outlined the Government's goal of welcoming over 2.5 million tourists in 2025. To support this initiative, Rs. 500 million has been allocated for the development of tourism infrastructure and promotional activities. Minimum wage of public and private sector employees also increased. President Dissanayake allocated Rs. 100 million in the 2025 Budget for Jaffna Library upgrades.
Key Proposals of the Budget
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