Sri Lanka

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US $100 million financing package for Sri Lanka aimed at bolstering macroeconomic resilience, transparency and public-sector efficiency in the aftermath of its economic crisis.

The latest nationwide survey reveals a seismic shift in the age profile of Sri Lanka, with the share of children shrinking and the elderly proportion growing – signalling a departure from decades of youthful-growth to one of rapid ageing and dependency pressures.

Launched under a 2017 Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of India and Sri Lanka, the scheme envisages 600 houses – one “model village” of 24 homes per district across Sri Lanka.

According to the report, the gap in learning outcomes between wealthier and poorer students is widening – even as the nation slips in its global standings.

The Aswesuma scheme, introduced in 2023, aims to replace a decades-old programme with a new model that ostensibly uses multidimensional deprivation scores rather than just income thresholds.

The strategy sets out a roadmap for channeling climate funds into key sectors such as agriculture, tourism, energy, water and nature-based solutions.

This warning comes more than a decade of heedless spending for ‘stimulus’ advocated by macro-economists themselves. The warning also comes amid growing concern that the post-pandemic stimulus era may be giving way to a more constrained fiscal environment worldwide.