Budget and inclusive development

“A Budget should be balanced not by more taxes, but by reduction of follies” (Herbert Hoover).

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President and Finance Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake presents the 2026 Budget in Parliament on 7 November

PRESIDENT cum Finance Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s 2025 Budget has won kudos from several independent observers. Since he and the NPP took over the reins of Government pragmatism had been the guiding philosophy of the rulers and as a result the economy has speedily moved over from crisis to stability.

Although the Budget’s expected growth rate target of 7% by the end of 2026 borders on exaggerated optimism in the context of IMF’s reduced growth rate of only 3.1% and persisting economic volatility in the ruling liberal economic order, the Treasury Secretary’s exuberant confidence over the Budget’s dependence on inclusive growth, export diversification, policy sustainability, production bias, rural development and digital transformation may have warranted that optimism.

Nevertheless, AKD’s Budget deserves credit because it reflects the proven transition of the economy from bankruptcy to stability, and critics from the Opposition should not outpour their political frustration on AKD’s balancing exercise which in many ways was forced upon him by the Opposition’s reckless mismanagement of Sri Lanka’s public finance and economy. That said, the annual Budget of a Government however expertly drafted and implemented with utmost scrupulousness is not the be all and end all in a nation’s struggle for development.