MP Shantha Bandara made this statement in the context of the newly passe

The former state minister’s statement provides a breakdown of social and related expenditures by government, and as reported attributes LKR 700 billion to the costs of control and relief activities due to Covid-19. (Headline in the Daily News: Rs 7

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Annual Reports. Data from the CB

In his statement, the MP states that (1) 70% of government revenue is spent on interest on loan repayments, and (2) Lebanon is the only country in the world to pay higher interest than Sri Lanka as a percentage of national revenue. To evaluate this c

The former MP claims that (a) 10 Covid-19 patients die every hour in Sri Lanka, (b) the ratio of Covid-19 death to cases in Sri Lanka is 1.5%, and (c) Sri Lanka reports the highest daily Covid-19 death rate in the Asian region at the time of his stat

To evaluate the minister’s claim, FactCheck.lk consulted data from the Annual report published by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

In Sri Lanka, the phrase “sugar scam” refers to the scandal surrounding the sudden large reduction in the Special Commodity Levy (SCL) on sugar imports, which took place on 13 October 2020. The SCL on sugar was reduced by 99.5%

The minister claims that Sri Lanka has the lowest petrol and diesel prices in the South Asian region—except for Pakistan, which has a lower diesel price.

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted World Bank national accounts data on GDP growth. FactCheck.lk evaluat

In his statement, the state minister claimed that the population percentage dependent on agriculture is over 30%, while the contribution to GDP is less than 10%. His figures indicate that the population percentage dependent on agricultur

(1) On the numbers: Tax revenues increased from Rs. 1,050 billion in 2014 to Rs. 1,700 billion under the yahapaalanaya gov

In his statement, the MP states that (1) public sector debt as a percentage of GDP was 109.7% in 2020, (2) this is the highest public debt in Sri Lanka’s history, and (3) if sovereign bonds had not been undervalued public debt would exceed 113% of

To check the claim on the ‘collapse’ of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry following the Easter attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic, FactCheck.lk compared the change in performance of tourism earnings after April 2019 and after March 2020 (when COVI

To evaluate this claim, FactCheck.lk looked exclusively at Our World in Data (OWID) statistics on COVID-19 to facilitate cross country comparison (as of 10th July). The minister does not state his metrics of success. FactCheck.lk evaluated the claim

In his statement, Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila claims that the accumulated losses of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CP

In his statement, State Minister Lohan Ratwatte claims that (a) the credit line under which the vehicles were to be imported does not

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Daily Operations. Money printing is more

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted the latest press releases by the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health and Our World in Data statistics on COVID-19 vaccinations. To evaluate the first claim, FactCheck.lk considered the MP to be refe

In his statement, the MP states that (1) Sri Lanka imported 574,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser in 2020, and (2) Sri Lanka, using 284kg per hectare, has the highest chemical fertiliser consumption in South Asia. To check the f

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk referred to the latest available data, from 2019, from the Central Bank Annual Report (CBSL) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Annual Report. Public sector external debt

In his statement, the MP states that (a) industries in total contribute to 26.4% of GDP, (b) industrial exports contribute 10% to GDP and (c) 10% of export against the 26.4% production is a very low share of total industrial production to export. To

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk consulted import data from the Export Development Board Trade Statistics. FactCheck.lk l

To evaluate this claim, FactCheck consulted the Annual Reports of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka of 2019 and 2020, and the Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance 2019.

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Department of Census and Statistic

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted the latest available Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) from the Department of Census and Statistics. The HIES is the main source of data in Sri Lanka on estimates of income share by h

FactCheck considered the word “strongest” as used by the minister to signify either the largest fund, or the fund with the highest rate of return. To check this claim, FactCheck looked at official sources from multiple countries in Asia to assess

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted Ministry of Finance (MoF) annual reports and Lanka Sathosa (LS) annual reports. Notably, LS and the MoF report has contradicting figures prior to 2016. LS also does not have data available after 2017 and provi

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted the Annual Imports Statistics published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for 2019 and 2020 under the External Sector Statistics and Monthly Economic Indicators which give provisional import data.

Claim 1: Concerns regarding repayment or credit risk can be assessed by the rate of interest demanded by borrowers and willingness to lend. The majority of Sri Lanka’s government non-ISB debt consists of domestic rupee debt (53.5% of total debt). O