The Government has launched a national-level initiative to install modern sanitation facilities at fuel stations across the country under the “Clean Sri Lanka” programme. 

An MoU was signed between the Presidential Task Force on Clean Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Energy and the island’s four major fuel providers: Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Lanka IOC PLC (LIOC), Sinopec Energy Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and RM Parks (Pvt) Ltd.

Under the three-year programme, 540 modern public sanitation facilities will be established at selected fuel stations islandwide. 

By the end of 2025, at least 100 of these facilities are expected to be operational, providing clean and user-friendly amenities to travellers across the country.

The World Bank Group today announced a major initiative to support job creation and unlock private sector growth in Sri Lanka, backed by more than $1 billion in financing over three years. The package targets sectors with high potential for employment and investment—energy, agriculture, tourism, and regional development.

The initiative aims to expand economic opportunity, strengthen local industry, and attract private capital to support long-term growth. It was announced after a meeting in Sri Lanka between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga—marking the first visit by a Bank President in two decades and signaling a renewed commitment to the country’s economic recovery and future.

“This support from the World Bank Group is an investment in the people of Sri Lanka,” said President of Sri Lanka Anura Kumara Dissanayake. “It will help create jobs, support small businesses, and open up new opportunities across the country. We are committed to ensuring this partnership delivers real change for our communities.”

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga highlighted the importance of acting now to build on Sri Lanka’s progress.

“This is a moment of opportunity for Sri Lanka,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga. “With progress underway to stabilize the economy and restart growth, core elements for job creation are in place. Now is the time to accelerate reforms and create the conditions for private enterprise to thrive—particularly in sectors that can create jobs at scale.

The World Bank estimates that nearly one million young people will enter Sri Lanka’s workforce over the next decade, yet only about 300,000 jobs are projected to be created over the same period.

The new financing directly targets this gap—mobilizing public and private investment to create more and better jobs. The immediate sectors targeted in the $1 billion package includes:

Energy ($185 million): Supporting new solar and wind generation equivalent to 1 gigawatt of capacity, aimed at lowering electricity costs for families and businesses. The project is expected to mobilize over $800 million in private investment and includes $40 million in guarantees.

Agriculture ($100 million): Helping farmers and agribusinesses adopt new technologies, access markets, and attract private capital. The program will benefit more than 380,000 people—including 8,000 agri-food producers—and is expected to leverage $17 million in private financing.

Tourism ($200 million): Expanding the sector by protecting natural and cultural assets, creating jobs, and ensuring benefits flow to local communities.

Regional Development ($200 million): Investing in infrastructure, local industries, and job creation in historically underserved areas—including the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

This integrated approach—bringing together the World Bank’s financing, knowledge, and private sector tools—is a concrete example of the institution’s unique ability to support economic growth and job creation at every stage. It reflects the Bank’s focus on supporting job-generating sectors and enabling private investment.

The World Bank Group has been a trusted partner to Sri Lanka for more than 70 years, with current investments exceeding $2.2 billion. Today’s announcement deepens that partnership—focused on enabling opportunity, expanding private sector growth, and supporting the country’s path to a more resilient and inclusive economy.

Sri Lanka’s central bank has made profits of 274 billion rupees, profit in 2024, with interest income from its bond portfolio and foreign assets, which turned positive in the year amid deflationary policy. 

The central bank has booked 219 billion rupees of interest from its rupee securities portfolio, down from 595 billion rupees in 2023 when it earned high rates from Treasury bills, its annual report shows.

Domestic Assets

The central bank bought over three trillion rupees of bills (inflationary policy) to trigger a currency crisis and the eventual sovereign default from 2019 to 2022.

Some of the bills were later effectively rolled over without creating any new inflationary reserves in banks, after monetary stability was reached in September 2022.

The bills were then restructured into lower interest yielding, step down bonds to meet International Monetary Fund gross financing needs and avoid broader Ghana style restructure that prevented rates from coming down.

The restructure led to a large book loss in 2023.

The bonds are now valued in the balance sheet according to a method chosen by the bank.

In the balance sheet local currency assets were reported as 1,748 billion rupees by end December from 2,044 billion with repurchase deals of 333 billion also terminated.

“This portfolio is not an investment portfolio, as the Bank does not purchase Government Securities with the intention of earning an interest income,” the central bank said.

“The Bank purchases or sells Government Securities to inject rupee liquidity into the domestic market or to absorb liquidity from the market in the course of carrying out its monetary policy operations in relation to its core objective, maintaining economic and price stability. 

“Hence, the volume of Government Securities in the Bank’s portfolio is largely determined by its monetary policy operations. Therefore, the Bank does not consider interest rate sensitivities arising from local currency assets.”

Foreign Assets

The central bank also earned 68 billion rupees on its foreign reserves. In 2024 foreign assets turned positive amid deflationary policy.

In 2023 the central bank paid 142 billion rupees in interest and earned only 86 billion on its reserves resulting in a negative carry. 

The central bank borrowed dollars abroad through swaps effectively printing money to suppress rates. The central bank also borrowed from India as forex shortages emerged from its domestic assets purchases.

It also has a loan from the IMF, it borrowed after cutting rates through inflationary policy to create a crisis in 2015/2016. However over 2023 and 2024 the central bank has repaid India a part of the loans and continued to make repayments to the IMF. 

Sri Lanka’s current IMF loan is given to the government as a budget support loan which can be used to repay debt.

In rupee terms there was a 140 billion rupee gain on negative foreign assets as the currency appreciated in 2023.

In 2024 however the central bank’s interest and gains on the foreign asses were 110 billion rupees as it built up foreign assets and expenses were only 83 billion rupees.

The central bank reported 274 billion rupees of profits after charging 22 billion rupees in operating expenses. 

Central bank’s operating expenses, in general, are also inflationary as are profit transfers, which may lead to exchange rate pressure.

Salaries and wages went up steeply to 10.5 billion rupees from 7.5 billion rupees. Pension fund costs were 4.7 billion rupees, compared to a reversal of 3.9 billion rupees last year.  

Source – Economynext