Echelon Magazine - July 2024

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We got a pulse!
We highly recommend Micheal Lewis' Boomerang to understand why people make bad decisions and assume unreasonable risks in a single-minded determination to ignore the obvious warning signs.
Like loose money: everyone knows and understands the risk, but almost always (if not always) states, businesses or individuals betray a willful inertness to curb their desires.
Our economic condition is down to persistently ignoring a malignant twin-deficit problem and going to the IMF like popping a Panadol or two when the pain gets worse as the cancer spreads.
Would we now get hooked on more dangerous Opioids, like debt restructuring? For Argentina, defaulting and negotiating creditor deals to restructure debt has happened multiple times (see our segment on the bilateral creditor agreement).
Are we fixing our twin deficit problem?
The budget deficit fell off a cliff to Rs361 billion up to April 2024 from Rs824.2 billion a year ago, helped by higher tax revenues and a falling interest bill, official data show.
Revenues surged 48% to Rs1.2 trillion in April 2024, ahead of the 35% annual growth projected in the 2024 budget, with higher VAT and income tax rates and economic activity recovering close to previous levels.
This past June, inflation reached 1.7%, up from 0.9% in May but significantly lower than 12% a year earlier.
Sri Lanka also reported a $1.3 billion Balance of Payments surplus in the first five months of the year, with earnings from merchandise exports ($5 billion), services ($1.6 billion) and worker remittances ($2.6 billion) outweighing import spending ($7.2 billion). Gross official reserves grew by $1 billion since 2023 to $5.4 billion in May 2024.
Vital signs are improving, but there is no escaping the excruciating convalescence. We have plenty of second opinions and options. Soon, we will have to decide.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.