News & market updates

Global debt hit a record $348 trillion at end-2025, rising by nearly $29 trillion over the year as governments added more than $10 trillion, the IIF said. The shift toward sovereign borrowing raised government debt to about $106.7tn, left emerging markets with large 2026 rollover needs, and heightens interest-rate and funding risks.

Sri Lanka plans to issue its first digital national ID by Q3–Q4 2026, with procurement in its final stages. The government is also developing a unified 'Super App', replacing ICTA with 'GovTech', and GovPay has processed over Rs. 2.8m across 153,530 payments YTD while re-launching QR payments to formalise rural transactions.

The Government will introduce a Digital Economy Act and a Cyber Security Act this year to establish a Digital Economy Authority and a Cyber Security Authority, with drafting in final stages and bills expected to be presented to Parliament within the year. The moves accompany a push for a national digital ID and a unified 'Super App', though critics warn new authorities could add bureaucracy.

LankaPay announced the eighth LankaPay Technnovation Awards 2026 to honour Inclusive FinTech innovations, with the awards ceremony on 24 March 2026 at Cinnamon Life and the Central Bank Governor as chief guest.

HUTCH launched GameOn, a web-based esports and gaming content platform developed with Bold Media Digital, offering unlimited gameplay, casual titles, free esports challenges and near-real-time leaderboards. Future phases will add tournament coverage, creator features and talent scouting to grow Sri Lanka's esports ecosystem.

Allianz Insurance Lanka has strengthened its partnership with MegaPay (operator of Pay&Go) to allow policyholders to make insurance payments and purchase third-party cover via Pay&Go’s network of 1,000+ multilingual self-service kiosks and digital channels across Sri Lanka.

Gapstars Group was formally launched at Scale Up 2026 in Colombo (2–6 Feb 2026), marking ten years of Gapstars building Sri Lankan embedded teams and expanding its finance capability alongside technology. The working summit with 50+ international partners emphasised scaling integrated tech and finance teams.

Gapstars marked its 10th anniversary in Colombo and launched Gapstars Group to scale its technology and finance delivery, with over 50 international partners attending. The event included AI workshops and formalised a finance vertical embedding Sri Lankan teams into European partners' reporting, compliance and forecasting functions.

Colombo market closed marginally higher: ASPI +0.05% (12.48 pts) at 23,703.10 and S&P SL20 +0.06% at 6,685.27 on turnover >Rs.4bn. Diversified financials, capital goods and banking led activity with CDB, DIAL, PLR, JKH and DOCK as key positive contributors while foreigners were net sellers (Rs.72m; YTD outflow Rs.15.9bn).

Asia markets rose (MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan ~+1%), led by Korean chipmakers as AI sentiment improved; investors also watched the yen and BOJ/Fed rate outlook. Traders awaited the US State of the Union while oil gained ~0.75% and gold was flat.

The Cabinet approved a cooperation agreement between the Sri Lanka Export Development Board and the German Import Promotion Bureau to boost Sri Lankan exporters' access to German and wider European markets. The pact targets natural raw materials and IT outsourcing exporters, offering technical guidance, market intelligence and capacity-building for SMEs and women-led businesses.

Economist Talal Rafi urged a disciplined shift from stabilisation to growth, calling for trade and productivity-driven reforms alongside fiscal discipline and reserve accumulation. He noted debt-to-GDP has fallen to near 100%, IMF growth at ~2.9% (this year)/3.1% (next) and reserves projected to rise to ~$8.8bn by year-end.

Colombo stocks closed in red, with the ASPI down 0.39% (92.40 pts) to 23,690.62 and the S&P SL20 down 0.71% to 6,681.12 on turnover of nearly Rs.3.7bn. Price losses in John Keells, Melstacorp and Nations Trust Bank were key negatives while ACL Cables, Access Engineering and Dialog were top turnover names.

Huawei's DCS Full-Stack Data Center Solution passed Enterprise Strategy Group (Omdia) technical validation, showing 30%+ higher IOPS and validated resilience, performance and openness for AI-era data centers. ESG highlighted multilayer ransomware protection, backup/DR and seamless VM migration tools.

The Sri Lanka Export Development Board held a virtual meeting with New Zealand and Sri Lankan high commissions and business representatives to promote Sri Lanka Expo 2026 and boost bilateral trade. Sri Lanka's exports to New Zealand were about USD 31.24m in 2025, led by tea, garments, rubber and edible preparations.

LK Domain Registry has partnered with Norwegian cybersecurity firm iQ Global AS to strengthen monitoring and protection of the .LK domain, improving proactive abuse detection and mitigation. The collaboration covers detection and tracking of abusive domains, trend analysis, and owner notifications to reduce phishing, malware and fraud.

Sri Lanka’s export earnings in January 2026 rose 13.71% y/y to US$ 1,532.6 Mn. Merchandise exports increased 10.66% (US$ 1,165.02 Mn) and services grew 24.59% (US$ 367.55 Mn), with strong gains in tea, coconut products, electrical/electronics and ICT/BPM, while apparel and gems/jewellery fell.

IMF Resident Representative Dr. Martha Woldemichael said sustaining reform momentum is critical for Sri Lanka to move from crisis stabilisation to transformation, noting four of eight EFF reviews completed and about $1.74bn disbursed. She urged trade liberalisation, digitalisation, labour-market reform, fiscal credibility and Central Bank independence to bolster investor confidence; reserves stood at $6.8bn and inflation was 2.3% YoY in Jan 2025.

Asian stocks slipped after a Wall Street selloff driven by uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy and AI-related risks; MSCI's Asia-Pacific ex-Japan index was down about 0.2%.

Roar Global announced regional expansion in South Asia, moving from entry-phase to scalable operations by establishing a dedicated in-market team in Bangladesh after a first revenue year and appointing Advantage Group as its exclusive operational partner in Nepal to scale Meta advertising.

Four university teams qualified for the CFA Institute Research Challenge Sri Lanka local finals and will present equity research on Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka PLC (PickMe) on 27 February 2026 at the HNB Auditorium in Colombo.

Wall Street futures and the dollar fell after confusion over new U.S. tariffs — including a surprise shift to a 15% global rate — revived 'sell America' flows. Nvidia's upcoming results will test the AI sector, while gold rose, oil eased and Treasury moves raised concerns about a roughly $170bn revenue hit that could widen the fiscal deficit.

Mozambique has launched a VFS Global‑powered e‑Visa platform allowing travellers from 183 countries, including Sri Lanka, to apply online for multiple visa categories with stays up to two years. The cloud-based system offers automated processing, secure payments and 24/7 support to boost tourism and investment.

The SEC and SLAASMB signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize cooperation on oversight of financial reporting and auditing for SEC‑licensed entities, including listed companies, establishing information‑sharing, referrals and joint awareness initiatives.

Sysco LABS MD Thushera Kawdawatta delivered the keynote at BCS Sri Lanka Chapter’s Tech Leaders Connect ’26, urging Sri Lanka to scale engineering talent and export 'intellect' to become a global cognitive superpower. Sysco LABS was also a Strategic Partner for the event held in Colombo.

Cabinet approved a revised reimbursement framework to expand 4G broadband, reimbursing service providers the lower of Rs.35 million per tower or 75% of actual construction costs to accelerate nationwide telecom tower rollout. To date 83 towers have been built to serve previously underserved areas.

Rajendra Theagarajah’s Cinnamon Global has deployed around $5m into growth-stage enterprises in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, with typical tickets of $25k–$50k and a largest investment of $700k. The patient-capital fund targets agriculture value-add, aquaculture, ICT and logistics and has a $500k program for heritage rice using data-driven agronomy.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka launched a two-day digital payments awareness campaign in Kurunegala as part of its nationwide 2025 promotion to onboard businesses and the public to LankaQR, mobile payments and online banking. Participating institutions include licensed banks, finance companies, mobile e-money operators and LankaPay to facilitate onboarding.

Asian stocks slipped and oil climbed as a U.S. military buildup around Iran pushed Brent crude above $72/bl; the dollar posted its biggest weekly gain in four months after mixed U.S. data and Fed minutes.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the AI Impact 2026 Summit Sri Lanka will pursue a regional AI strategy—shared affordable access, centrally governed language datasets, common evaluation and security frameworks, and capacity development—and explore regional AI data centres with India.