Category:
Sri Lanka passes IMF loan hurdle, despite failing fiscal target
Nov 07, 2009 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 413.4 million US dollar tranche under its stand by loan, despite the government failing to meet a key budget constraint, the lender said. Under the original deal, a net international reserve target, which excluded borrowed reserves other than that of the IMF […]
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LONDON, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – The price of gold hit a record high above 1,100 dollars an ounce in trading here on Friday following a report that Sri Lanka had joined India in purchasing the precious metal in favour of the US currency. “The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has announced that it is […]
Sri Lanka stocks rebound
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan share prices rebounded Friday after falling sharply in recent days with brokers saying better company earnings and falling interest rates likely to bring buyers back to the market. “Undisciplined trading practices may have contributed to the down trend.” The fall in interest rates and improved company earnings, and […]
Sri Lanka seeks to turn subsistence farming into agri-business
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs to develop and maintain consistent policies and provide appropriate support infrastructure to change subsistence farmers into commercially successful agri-businesses, an expert said.“The most important thing the government can do is to ensure consistent policies on agriculture, land, trade and investment,” said Anoma Ariyawardana of the Faculty of […]
Sri Lanka Tata unit shrugs off wage hike cost
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Watawala Plantations said September quarter group net profit fell 78 percent to 9.4 million rupees from a year ago but commodity prices were seen strong with a global economic recovery.The firm, a unit of India’s Tata group, said in a stock exchange filing that sales during the September […]
Awaiting Arrest
JEDDAH, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Larita Delacruz sits on the concrete base of a bridge pylon, rubs her swollen belly and explains her predicament: she is five months pregnant with twins, and wants to go home to give birth. But after four years of working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, she lacks both […]
Consumer Sales
Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Cargills (Ceylon) group which runs Sri Lanka’s largest retail chain said profits rose 35 percent to 139 million rupees in the September 2009 quarter from a year earlier, and was planning a billion rupees in new investments in the current year. Last year, the firm had a 73 million rupee-one […]
Wider Net
NEW YORK, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Law enforcement officials in New York announced Thursday charges against 14 people in a widening probe into the largest ever alleged hedge-fund insider trading scheme on Wall Street.US Attorney Preet Bharara and New York’s assistant FBI director Joseph Demarest said the accused took part in insider trading schemes […]
Broad Band
CHENNAI, Nov 06, 2009 (LBO) – Despite improving quality, Sri Lankan fixed and mobile broadband internet users receive less bandwidth than ‘advertised’, while web hosting costs are also higher than developed countries, a telecom study has revealed. “It’s very clear that broadband speeds advertised by providers were more than what they could offer,” Chanuka Wattegama, […]
Sri Lanka boat people leader a known trafficker: Colombo
November 6, 2009 (AFP) – The leader of a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in Indonesia is a known people smuggler previously deported from Canada, the government said Friday, a charge he has strongly denied.Alex, who emerged as the spokesman for the 255 Sri Lankans whose boat was detained last month en route […]
90,000 displaced in Sri Lanka conflict return home: UN
GENEVA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – About a third of those displaced during the conflict between Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers have returned home over the past three months, the UN refugee agency said Friday.“Some 90,000 internally displaced people have returned to their villages in Sri Lanka’s north and east over the past […]
‘s stay
JAKARTA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Indonesia extended by a week on Friday a deadline for an Australian customs ship loaded with 78 protesting Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave its territory.The extension would allow the Oceanic Viking, which has been moored on Bintan island since last month, to stay while a solution is found […]