The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake questioned the Prime Minister on whether the reported 7.75 percentage point reduction in interest rates was sufficient for Sri Lankan producers to compete regionally. He noted that interest rates in countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were around 5–7 percent, while Sri Lankan rates remained higher, and asked what structural measures could be taken to provide producers with more competitive borrowing costs.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Prime Minister, in your answer to my first question, you said the interest rate in the country has reduced by 7.75 percentage points. However, if interest rates had gone up from say 10 to 30 percent and now have come down only to around 7–8 percent, we are still high compared to our competitors. In our competitive region—India, Bangladesh, Pakistan—rates are around 5–7 percent, while ours remains between 10–20 percent. Hon. Prime Minister, what can be done to create a structure where our producers have truly competitive interest rates?
Provenance
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- Hansard, Monday, 24 February 2025 ·No. 1741236032093385 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 24 February 2025. No. 1741236032093385. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/11667