President Anura Kumara Dissanayake lacks the strength to face the looming economic challenges of 2028, particularly the significant debt repayments due that year, stated Attorney-at-Law Shiral Lakthilaka during a press conference organized by ‘Dinana Dakuna’ (Winning South), a collective aiming to reinstate right-wing politics.
The press briefing, held on May 8th at the Janaki Hotel in Colombo 05 under the theme “‘Anura Can’t’: Poverty of the Compass in the Face of 2028 Debt Repayments,” saw Lakthilaka express strong doubts about the president’s economic capabilities.
“President Anura Kumara had ample opportunity in the last six months to demonstrate a robust plan to overcome the severe challenges Sri Lanka faces as a nation, but he has failed to show any such plan,” Lakthilaka asserted. “Furthermore, an even more daunting challenge than what we currently face is expected in 2028. To overcome this, a strong plan built through multilateral discussions is essential. President Anura’s journey so far indicates a groping in the dark rather than a solid strategy. Therefore, we believe that Anura cannot face the economic challenges of 2028.”
During the media briefing, the “Debt Repayment Truth Meter” was also launched, along with the unveiling of sltruthmeter.com, a real-time update website intended to monitor the government’s economic activities and disseminate factual information to the public.
The event saw the participation of several prominent figures, including President’s Counsel Maithree Gunaratne, Nishantha Warnasinghe, Dr. Mahesh Hapugoda, Dr. Athulasiri Samarakoon, Nadeesh de Silva, Maheel Bandara, Madhuri Ranasinghe, and Attorney-at-Law Sudarshana Gunawardhana, in addition to Shiral Lakthilaka.
At the occasion, ‘Dinana Dakuna’ released a statement titled “Statement on the Wicked Challenges Facing the Country.” The statement highlighted the “wicked problem” of the debt economy and its ten primary dynamics, including the reliance on borrowing for development, lack of wealth generation, consumption-based short-term growth, artificial asset growth, debt servicing consuming growth profits, continuous borrowing, vulnerability to external economic pressures, the vicious cycle of the financial economy built by the debt economy, the collapse of the production economy due to decreased purchasing power, and rising social inequality.
The collective emphasized that such complex crises lack simple solutions and require a creative and practical mindset developed through multilateral discussions (Design Thinking) for continuous improvement.
The statement also raised critical questions about the government’s plan to exit the current debt economy when foreign debt repayments recommence in 2028, questioning the existence of a robust economic vision beyond conventional approaches and whether the groundwork for this is being laid between 2025 and 2028.
Highlighting the scale of the challenge, ‘Dinana Dakuna’ pointed out that Sri Lanka needs to pay USD 3.107 billion in debt installments in 2028, comprising USD 2.133 billion in annual primary debt installments and USD 974 million in annual interest. The statement further detailed the current pressures on the country’s debt economy, including an estimated revenue of USD 16.7 billion and a budget deficit of USD 7.3 billion in 2025, a trade deficit of USD 6.07 billion in 2024, leading to an estimated annual new borrowing of USD 13.37 billion. The total national debt stood at USD 95.25 billion as of June 2024, with a projected increase suggesting a total debt of USD 141 billion by the end of 2027, making the 2028 debt repayments potentially unmanageable based on current income levels.
