A “top emerging-market money manager” is reportedly “waiting for Sri Lanka to default”, as an economic crisis in the country has left Colombo struggling to keep up with international payments.

Carlos de Sousa who oversees a bond fund at Vontobel Asset management in Zurich “expects the South Asian country to run out of money to pay creditors by mid year,” according to Bloomberg.

N K Jayawardena, the president of the All Ceylon Bakery Association has warned that the country faces imminent shortages of bread as wheat and flour importers informed them of supply chain disruptions caused by the forex crisis, which have left foreign dollar reserves at an all-time low.

Jayawardena spoke to reporters on January 7 and detailed that following discussions held with flour importers, the association was informed that the situation was critical.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been compelled to enforce daily hour-long power cuts in Sri Lanka, as a worsening economic crisis has meant the power utility is unable to purchase fuel oil for its power stations.

The Sri Lankan government has caved to pressure from Beijing and agreed to pay almost US$6.9 million for a shipment of fertilisers that it had previously rejected as substandard.

In a statement issued ahead of the Chinese foreign minister’s visit to the island, the state-run People's Bank of Sri Lanka confirmed it had paid the Seawin Biotech Group US$6.87 million over the shipment.

The 37th anniversary of the assassination of Tamil human rights activist and local Catholic parish priest, Reverend Father Mary Bastian, who was shot dead by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) in 1985, was commemorated at the Vankalai St. Anne’s Church in Mannar last Thursday.  

With the country on the brink of financial default, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has requested for debt restructuring from China.

The request comes as China’s Foreign Minister concluded his first international tour of the new year in Colombo. During his tour, he visited Eritrea, Kenya, the Comoros in East Africa and the Maldives. Whilst in Sri Lanka he also spoke with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. His visit to Sri Lanka coincides with the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka.

To boost the country’s foreign reserves the government has sold over half its gold reserves, worth an estimated $382.2 million at the end of November.

Its value plummeted by half by the end of December reaching a value of $175.3 million.

Over the next 12 months, Sri Lanka is required to pay an estimated US$7.3 billion in domestic and foreign loans, including a US$500m international sovereign bond repayment in January. However, as of November, available foreign currency reserves were just $1.6 billion.

The Sri Lankan military has undertaken massive deforestation of parts of the Tamil homeland since the end of the armed conflict. Sharing images from Google Earth on Facebook, Kilinochchi journalist M. Thamilselvan illustrated the loss of forest cover surrounding army camps on the east side of the A9 road between Mankulam and Murikandy in the Mullaitivu district.

Murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge was commemorated in a ceremony held by the Batticaloa Press Club earlier today, marking 13 years since he was gunned down in Colombo.

As we mark 13 years since the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunge, we look back on the murder of two Tamil youth who were killed as part of cover up by the Sri Lankan security forces.

In the aftermath of Wickramatunge’s murder, details of the killing began to slowly become revealed over the years as international pressure over the assassination mounted.

Reports eventually revealed that days before the assassination, two motorcycles used in the killing were stolen from their Tamil owners in Vavuniya in an attempt to blame the killing on the LTTE.