Competing Narratives of Economic Realities: An Analysis of Budget Speeches in Sri Lanka

Budget speeches are an intersection between economics and politics. This perspective analyses the budget speeches of Sri Lanka to recognise how political discourse in election manifestos is linked to economic policies during the incumbent period of several political parties across nearly two decades in the post-war era. The evidence suggested that while distinct ideologies existed, they tended to evolve over the course of a political party’s incumbency, as influenced by various factors, both domestic and international. Major bottlenecks for the growth of Sri Lanka’s economy were identified by all governments. Yet the underlying causes of such challenges and the proposed solutions varied. Moreover, there were gaps between the discourse in policy documents and the implementation of policies.
This suggested that Sri Lanka’s budget speeches are of limited use as indicators of economic performance. However, they can be considered a platform that shapes the political narrative to legitimise government performance and plans.