ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s state-managed Employees Provident Fund will pay a 13 percent return to its member in 2023, State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has said.
The government has decided to pay the return from the earnings the fund made in 2023, he said.
It was higher than the 9.0 percent return the EPF had paid in recent years, Minister Siyambalapitiya said.
Sri Lanka re-structured the debt of the EPF, extending maturities and initially raising the coupon the 12 percent, after the central bank busted the currency from 200 to 370 destroying its real value and pushing inflation to 70 percent.
However, over the past year, the central bank has appreciated the currency, recouping the fund some of its losses.
According the Central Bank, the inflation generating state enterprise that manages the fund, liability to members went up by 12.9 percent to 3,817.9 billion rupees in 2023, while the total value of the fund went up 11.5 percent to 3,857.4 billion rupees.
There has been hardly any inflation (as measured by the most widely watched Colombo Consumer Prince Index) since September 2022, when monetary stability was restored. (Colombo/Apr29/2024)