THE PULSE OF BUSINESS The recently released annual special edition of listed company rankings for financial year 2023/24 bears evidence to the resilience of the nation’s corporates in the face of adversity – and from the magazine’s post balance sheets review, the financial year in progress could well be one of consolidation… perhaps at best.

And while the LMD 100 presents an analysis of the successes and hardships of many of the nation’s largest businesses, spare a thought for the SME sector – which to many, represents the backbone of the so-called ‘engine of growth.’

Unbearably high taxes across the board, managing spiralling costs and overheads (despite tapering inflation, if official data is to be believed), and servicing high levels of debt – necessitated in the main following the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and then an unprecedented economic crisis – have taken their toll on a beleaguered community of businesspeople.

To add to the misery, Sri Lanka Inc. continues to grapple with an unprecedented brain drain, which has businesses on the back foot and is undermining the quality of their outputs.

If one were to caption the year ahead, 2025 looks set to be ‘a year of hope’ as businesses and indeed the people brace themselves for what may lie ahead.

There is optimism, cautious optimism, anxiety and even outright negativity about where our precious nation will head – some of this depends on one’s political inclinations, others by peeking at the prism of past experiences and the rest simply say they don’t know!

The first signs of Sri Lanka’s economic and business trajectory will appear when the newly installed government presents its first budget in the not too distant future, as it hopefully embarks on a three pronged balancing act of managing the economy, safeguarding the poor and acting to address the extreme vulnerability to corruption in this country.

In hope we live…

 – Editor-in-Chief