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Sunday, 26 October 2014

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Budget 2015:

Government passes benefits of economic growth to people

Since 2005 Sri Lanka has achieved significant growth in economic and social sectors and the living standard of the people have improved as a result, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Members of Parliament, presenting the 2015 Budget on Friday.

"The Mahinda Chintana - Vision for the Future, targeted defeating terrorism, fast implementation of infrastructure development projects and increased economic growth. We have achieved all these goals and by 2015 our per capita GDP will increase to US $ 4,000, a four-fold increase compared to 2005. We have achieved an average economic growth rate of seven percent. New investment opportunities have opened and the income of the people has increased," he said.

The current account deficit has declined to three percent and foreign reserves have increased to over US $10 billion. Government debts have declined by 30 percent compared to 2008, the President said.

Economic analysts said various concessions given to the people cannot be interpreted as concessions targeting the upcoming presidential election. However, even without an election the Government has been compelled to present a Budget with proposals of this nature because it is the right time to pass the benefits of economic growth achieved in the recent past to the people.

Today, the economy is stable and the Government has the ability to grant concessions to the people. Before 2009, the Government called on the people to tighten their belts and the people did it without questioning.

Before 2009, the high defence cost was the concern and working people did not demand higher wages and supported the Government to end terrorism. After the elimination of terrorism, the Government needed time and space to rebuild the affected areas and lay a strong foundation for economic development and maintain macro-economic fundamentals. Since maintaining inflation at low levels was the target, wage increase was postponed every year. Today, after significant improvement in the physical infrastructure with strong economic fundamentals, people expect the benefits of this development and therefore, the Government cannot further delay listening to the voice of the working people, analysts said.

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