Ajith Fernando

@indika27 Very sad to hear that Amila.

ඒ ළමයා නැතිවුණා.

@YRanaraja @NamalAbhaya @aritha So maybe the government realized that these are the best policies for the country and that’s why they are sticking with them. We saw what MMT voodoo economics did to us no. No one except a few paid economic assassins want that again.

@n2addict @NamalAbhaya @aritha True

Since Sri Lanka passed the ‘Central Bank Act’ the central bank of Sri Lanka is more of a regional branch of the IMF.

@YRanaraja @NamalAbhaya @aritha With 2/3 majority in ok aren’t its a simple issue to change the central bank act if the government wants to.

@n2addict @NamalAbhaya @aritha not really, even Sri Lanka out of the IMF program the central bank act will give both administrative and financial autonomy, this establishes legal operational autonomy by preventing political or external control.

@YRanaraja @NamalAbhaya @aritha my understanding is that the Parliament even today can tell the IMF to get lost and implement any policies that they want. Ofcourse they will have to live with the consequences of those decisions.

we are discussing finance, not democracy. Giving power to Parliament to decide the nation’s financial direction is an expression of national sovereignty, ensuring that the IMF or any other institution does not exercise extraterritorial authority. If your argument is based on the 2022 crisis, the real cause was the failure to elect competent leaders.

@IndianGems_ We in turn admire your airports very much. They really are top class.

Guys, this is Colombo. Imagine they can still deliver this level of infra even after bankruptcy. I am yet to see a clean, green city like this in India.

@danielalphonsus This kind of dedication borders on fanaticism doesn’t it?

Seetha would visit him in prison. Overtaken by the uncertainty of prolonged incarceration, Silva told her that it was okay for her to leave him if she so wished. The headstrong Seetha was not impressed: “I told him I didn’t need his permission if that was what I wanted to do.”

@ShardhaSosa Thanks a lot Shardha 🙏🏼

Congratulations Ajith. Starting the 2nd innings on a different wicket. 🎊🎊🎊 @n2addict themorning.lk/articles/adyOk…

@maiamindel If you test drive a BYD you will be thinking more like 67%!

I wonder if Elon will make a joke whenever Tesla goes down 6.7%

Concerned about the detention of former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickramasinghe on what, on the face of it, seem trivial charges. His health issues have already seen him taken to the prison hospital. I call on the government of Sri Lanka -- while fully respecting that this is their internal matter -- to abjure the politics of vengeance and treat their former President with the respect and dignity that he deserves, after his decades of service to the nation.

Weaponizing the law is worse than breaking the law!

@yasasrij You are right. I can think of many ways it could have been improved but as they say hindsight is 20:20. My statement was directed at some misguided or mischievous analyst who made blatantly false statements designed to create trouble.

@n2addict In hindsight, we can be happy about the real returns of the EPF. The bonds used to exchange EPF holdings should’ve been structured as floating-rate instruments, benchmarked to inflation with a floor rate — since there’s no assurance future inflation will stay below 9% till 2038.

Happy Easter to all those experts who calculated the trillions of losses the EPF made. economynext.com/sri-lanka-epf-…

@LalinDias Ideally you can only benchmark it against a similar fund. But we don’t have a similar one so that’s not possible. Your cynicism is correct. However trying to change that will be very unpopular by the very people who are affected by it.

@n2addict I wasn’t getting into that debate. I was just trying to benchmark the 11% against something. I must admit that I’m a little cynical about EPF/ETF and feel the primary motive is to part fund the government’s budget deficit.

@LalinDias That’s a separate issue. Whether we need enforced savings and even if it is needed should the saver have the freedom to invest n any fund he or she likes.

@n2addict As you say, you can’t. I was just thinking of it from the perspective of a contributor to the EPF. The difference between the return the EPF generated in 2024 and the simplest alternative (a MM fund) if you were to invest the funds yourself.

@dhananath MMT=WMD

🇱🇰We could’ve negotiated debt better—no doubt. But our real enemy is inflation. If the CBSL ensures sound money and keeps inflation low, EPF returns take care of themselves. Let’s not forget: Modern Monetary Theory accelerated Sri Lanka into this crisis and robbed the poor

@LalinDias How do you compare the return of a long term fund that invest long term to that of a short term fund!!

@n2addict Oh. I had thought that the EPF’s return in 2024 would have been close to that of a money market fund. I guess not.

@SajithCooray @vishkidx According to studies done (by multiple parties) if they had not been protected at that time, we would have become like Lebenon.

@vishkidx @n2addict If we had not protected the banks from DDR, they also could have made record returns like the EPF members.

@LalinDias Oh ok. I would think over that period it would have returned closer to 20% or so on average. Not really sure.

@n2addict Indeed. I am aware of that Ajith. As a money market fund is probably the simplest fixed income investment vehicle for a retail investor, I was just curious how the EPF return compared to a MM fund in 2024.

@m_thanush What are they now ?

@LalinDias Lalin the issue is that epf is a long term fund investing for 20 30 years and a money market fund is a short term fund investing less than a year. So it’s like comparing a savings account with a long term bond.

@n2addict 11% is quite a decent return isn’t it? Do you know what a money market fund would have returned in 2024?