Sri Lanka's debt burden rises to Rs.4500 billion.!!! Foreign investments have dropped by 20 percent.!!!

Sri Lanka's debt burden rises to Rs.4500 billion - Kirielle : Foreign investments have dropped by 20 percent
December 21, 2010, 9:18 pm


by Zacki Jabbar



Sri Lanka's debt burden has doubled to Rs.4,500 billion in the last five years, while foreign investments have dropped by 20 percent over the last twelve months, UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said on Monday. Speaking at a news conference in Colombo, he said that the country was in dire straits, despite the Mahinda Rajapaksa government’s high sounding pronouncements. The government's way out of the crisis, was to increase taxes on the poor masses, while aid from Western countries kept "drying up", Kiriella said.



"Seventy percent of the aid that Sri Lanka received earlier, came from Western countries. The others are only giving loans which have to be repaid," he said. "This is why the Rajapaksa government, while talking of economic progress, keeps taxing the people who are already struggling to survive."



Meanwhile, foreign direct investments have dropped by 20 percent in the last one year alone, he said.

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