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French charity scales down Sri Lanka operations after massacre
Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) – A French charity announced Wednesday it was drastically scaling down its operations following allegations that government troops were responsible for the massacre of 17 of its employees.Action Against Hunger (Action contre la Faim or ACF) said it was reducing its number of staff by 60 to 70 percent and stopping […]
’s trade deficit ballooned in July as port strike hit exports
Sept 06 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit expanded by more than 50 percent in the seven months to July, spurred by rapid import growth and falling exports, the Central Bank said. In July exports fell by 7.9 percent to 516 million US dollars, after striking port workers interrupted exports, but oil imports which come […]
Sri Lanka lags reforming nations in South Asia: Report
Sept 06 (LBO) – Once the leader in reform, Sri Lanka is now lagging other reforming economies in South Asia, and the country has become a more difficult place to do business, a World Bank report released today said. ‘Doing Business in 2007: How to Reform’ has found that only India and Pakistan had introduced […]
Maldives easiest place to do business in South Asia, Sri Lanka trails in fourth place
Sept 06 (LBO) – The coral atoll of Maldives was the easiest place to do business in South Asia, followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh, while Sri Lanka trailed at fourth place, in a ranking by the World Bank. Maldive Islands earned first place in four out of ten topics the Bank had used to measure […]
’s Serendib Hotels to sell 20% stake to Thai resort operator, Minor International
Sept 05 (LBO) – Serendib Hotels said Tuesday it would go in for a private placement to sell a 19.90 percent stake in the company to Minor International Public Company Limited, a large Thai resort operator. The company, which owns a chain of three hotels Hotel Serendib, Club Hotel Dolphin and Sigiriya Hotel, plans to […]
Oil Brokering
Sept 06 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has approved new terms to limit exports of vanaspathi vegetable oil to India, with the government hopeful that local factories will re-open in a month. The two countries clocked up just under two billion dollars in bilateral trade last year a four fold increase since the free trade deal […]
Trade Breaks
Sept 05 (LBO) – India is drawing up a more favourable package for Sri Lankan garment exports to the country under the Indo-Lanka trade deal. Quotas on apparel and tea have been poorly utilised and has not really taken off, Sunjay Sudhir, Counsellor, Economic and Commercial at the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka, told […]
‘s economic growth trails Asian rivals
BANGKOK, Sept 5, 2006 (AFP) – Political turmoil and flagging exports have resulted in Thailand trailing its Asian rivals in economic growth, Fitch Ratings reported Monday. The international financial agency revised down the kingdom’s growth forecast from 5.0 percent to 4.3 percent for 2006, saying that political uncertainties had caused Thailand to “lose a year” […]
Cut the fiscal deficit to preserve growth : ECB
ROME, Sept 5 (AFP) – Italy must take immediate steps to improve its public finances in order to preserve its economic recovery, an Italian member of the European Central Bank’s executive board insisted on Tuesday. “To put off or dilute corrective measures means that we will continue to talk of taxes and operations on public […]
China wants to head off foreign reserve growth
BEIJING, Sept 5 (AFP) – China’s forex reserves rose further to hit 954.5 billion dollars at end-July but they must not be allowed to grow much more because of the upward pressure they put on the yuan, Vice President Zeng Qinghong said in an article Tuesday.The latest figure translates into 30.3 percent growth from 732.7 […]