Budget 2025: Expectations galore with 76 years of waiting

The maiden Budget of the NPP Government was tabled in the Parliament on 17 February. The third Reading of it was concluded on 21 March with the President's speech.

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There have been many opinions expressed within and outside the Parliament during this 4½ weeks period. They were primarily focused on Government proposals for generating revenue, spending it and bridging the deficit.

But, as the President mentioned in the Budget speech, "A budget is not just a set of revenue and expenditure proposals for the upcoming year, it is also a reflection of the Government's approach to building the economy and overall policy." One has to look at the 2025 Budget from this perspective. The Government's approach to building the economy and overall policy reflects in the expectations and the proposals spelt out in the Budget.

Expectations galore

There are expectations galore in the Budget. These expectations are laid down in the section titled 'Medium Term Macroeconomic Direction':

"We expect economic growth of over 5 percent real GDP growth over the medium term."

"Accordingly, we expect the currency, which is based on market fundamentals, will no longer experience spells of substantial volatility."

"Through our measures to improve supply capacity in the economy, we expect price shocks to be minimized,... Macroeconomic policy path will also be supportive ... Accordingly, we expect the currency, which is based on market fundamentals, will no longer experience spells of substantial volatility ... where we expect exports of goods and services to reach an all-time high of close to USD 19 billion in 2025 ... we hope to see a reversal of this trend by 2025, followed by a persistent decline in poverty."

"...we expect to better use the post-crisis opportunities to create a transformative change in the Sri Lankan economy to achieve long-term economic stability and prosperity.

Realisation of expectations