The current government has been able to reduce the budget deficit systematically, says Professor Priyanga Dunusinghe of the Department of Economics, University of Colombo.
He points out that reports that the government has borrowed heavily in the past year are false.
He stated this while holding a media conference in Colombo.
“This government has had to borrow, mostly from domestic sources. The reason for that is that we know that with this debt crisis, the ability to go to foreign financial markets or borrow from bilateral lenders is at a very low level. Also, even if multilateral institutions lend, they are currently providing less credit facilities than before. Therefore, the government is inevitably having to borrow in a situation where there is a budget deficit. I do not see that there has been a large borrowing under this government. The reason for that is that the budget deficit has been gradually reduced. Also, when we look at the government’s borrowing targets for the year 2026, we see that there is a reduction in the amount of borrowing…” he said.