Business
The real budget will come after presidential election: state minister of finance
By Sanath Nanayakkare
Sri Lanka’s deep-seated macroeconomic problems including external debt restructuring, least fiscal headroom for long-term budget proposals and the vicissitudes of the political landscape in the run up to the presidential election will prevent the government from presenting a national budget for the Year 2025.
This was stated by State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya yesterday.
“As the country is headed for a presidential election and different political parties are vowing to adopt different economic policies, it would be best to not present a budget for the full Year of 2025. Instead, we would present a budget applicable for the first three / four months of 2025 to keep the fiscal and monetary operations uninterrupted. And the new administration would have to take things from there according to their economic policies and forecasted expenditures and revenues for the full period of 2025,” he said.