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Sri Lanka budget off track in first quarter 2012
June 25, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget has gone off track in the first quarter of 2012, with current spending far outpacing tax revenues, leaving a yawning revenue deficit for the three months that is bigger than the gap for the whole of last year. Current spending by Sri Lanka’s rulers rose 24.2 percent […]
Sri Lanka gets US$2.5bn dollars in China financing
June 24, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has notched up 2.53 billion US dollars in funding from China, since 2007 and 1,205 billion US dollars already disbursed into roads, power, ports and airports, a finance ministry report said. Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board built its first 300 MegaWatt coal plant with Chinese financing and the […]
Sri Lanka tourism receipts up 25-pct to May
June 23, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has earned 399. 3 million US dollars from tourism in the first five months of 2012, up 25. 5 percent from the 318.1 million US dollars earned a year earlier, official data showed. Tourist arrivals rose 18.2 percent to 387.622 in the same period. Sri Lanka’s tourist sector […]
Freedom Concerns
June 23, 2012 (LBO) – Friday Forum, a Sri Lankan citizens group has expressed concern over further deterioration of rule of law and religious freedom three years after a 30-year civil war ended. “Three years after the end of the war, we are deeply concerned about the continuing violent political culture, the deterioration of our […]
Sri Lanka newspaper editor ouster worrying: media watchdogs
June 23, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan and international media freedom organizations had expressed expressed concern over the removal of an editor of Ceylon Today, a Sri Lankan broadsheet, and said it sought to find out the reasons. œThe dismissal of Lalith Allahakkoon by Ceylon Today is worrying, Reporters without Boraders a Paris based press […]
Sri Lanka’s battered currency might see some respite: report
June 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s currency is expected to firm up later this year, while treasury yields could creep up on fiscal slippages, a report said, as the central bank looks for ways to tighten monetary policy. The Sri Lankan rupee has fallen by some 17 percent against the US dollar since the […]
Sri Lankan stocks down 0.05 percent
June 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks dipped 0.05 percent on Friday, despite big ticket deals in John Keells Holdings, Commercial Bank, Seylan Bank and Central Finance, brokers said. Central Finance PLC, one of the country’s oldest finance companies, fell 80 cents to 135.00 rupees on trades of 592,959 shares. A large parcel of […]
Next Wave
June 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banks have to be ready to finance infrastructure when the state is expected to woo private capital into toll roads and ports in the next few years, an investment banker said. Several foreign firms have made proposals. The government is already tapping commercial banks for infrastructure finance through […]
No Sri Lankans among rescued from stricken refugee boat: foreign ministry
June 22, 2012 (LBO) – There were no Sri Lankans among more than 110 people rescued from a capsized refugee boat by Australian authorities, the foreign ministry said. Australian and Indonesian authorities are continuing to search for around 90 other still believed missing from the boat, the foreign ministry said. Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said […]
Millions of Bangladeshi apparel workers need bank accounts: IFC
June 22, 2012 (LBO) – International Finance Corporation, a member World Bank arm has said 86 percent of three million apparel sector workers in Bangladesh did not have bank accounts, potentially opening up a large new market for banks. “This report shows that there is a considerable opportunity in offering a range of financial services […]