Sri Lanka does not welcome the New Year; it limps into it, insisting recovery is underway while the balance sheet says otherwise. The past year was a political and economic rollercoaster that stripped away illusions.
President Ranil Wickremesingheexited office defeated at the polls, followed swiftly by investigations and arrest over the alleged misuse of state funds. It was an ending neither dramatic nor cleansing — just familiar.
Equally familiar was what wasn’tdiscussed. There was no serious public accounting of excesses past, no reckoning for the era when power travelled in convoys and entourages without consequence – like the Mahinda visit to the UK with an entourage of close to 200 souls. Presumably President Mahinda needed each and every person, to keep him entertained in overseas territories!
In Sri Lanka, accountability rarely survives a change of administration.
Nature then delivered its own verdict. Cyclone Ditwah tore through vulnerable communities, exposing — again — a state that reacts late, coordinates poorly, and rebuilds temporarily. Disaster management here is not a system; it is an afterthought.
Then come the numbers. Officially, reserves are proclaimed at USD 6.4 billion. Unofficially — once obligations, swaps, and liabilities are stripped out — usable reserves may be closer to USD 1.3 billion, or less. This is not pessimism. It is arithmetic. And arithmetic does not respond to press conferences.
Perhaps most telling was China’s restraint. Once omnipresent, Beijing now appears cautious, offering a symbolic one-million-yuan pledge long after disaster struck. The signal was unmistakable: Sri Lanka is no longer a strategic showcase; it is a calculated risk.
So what lies ahead for 2026? The answer, once again, is infrastructure. Roads. Railways. The eternally promised Colombo–Kandy line. Concrete is necessary — but concrete alone is not an economy. Without exports, productivity, and institutional reform, infrastructure becomes motion without direction.
Sri Lanka has survived another year. That is not the same as progress. The greater danger now is not collapse — it is comfort in half-truths.
Sri Lanka doesn’t lack plans — it lacks honesty. You cannot build a future on gross reserves that don’t exist, friendships that have cooled, and roads that lead nowhere new.
Until this country confronts its real numbers, its real failures, and its real power structures, every New Year will sound the same: confident words, recycled promises, and a nation still waiting at the platform, watching the train of reform pass by.
As we step into the New Year, this country deserves more than slogans — it deserves truth, discipline, and courage. Recovery cannot be announced; it must be built, measured, and felt. Still, despite the setbacks, the storms, and the missed chances, Sri Lanka remains resilient.
To every family, every worker, every entrepreneur, and every young person hoping for better days:
May the New Year bring steadier ground, clearer leadership, and the beginnings of the future we keep postponing. Sri Lanka has survived — now it must finally move forward.
We wish you All The Very Best!
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