Category:
Shipping Costs
Aug 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shippers face the prospect of an increase in transportation costs to export markets with loss-making global carriers beginning to raise freight rates in an effort to restore profitability.The line, which controls about 15 percent of the global container market, has also announced rate hikes on other trade routes. […]
Sri Lanka coconut exporter does well in June
Aug 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Coco Lanka said exports of coconut products did well in the June 2009 quarter with group net profit up 982 percent to 34 million rupees from just three million a year ago. The company, part of the Renuka Holdings group, said in a stock exchange filing that sales […]
Sri Lanka flay New Zealand in first Test
GALLE, August 18, 2009 (AFP) – Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan pulverised New Zealand’s bowlers to help Sri Lanka make a spectacular start in the first cricket Test on Tuesday. Jayawardene hit an unbeaten 108 and Dilshan smashed 92 off 72 balls in his new role as opener as Sri Lanka, sent in to bat […]
Sri Lanka rains flood 2,000 shelters at camp: UN
August 18, 2009 (AFP) – Heavy rains flooded nearly 2,000 makeshift shelters housing Sri Lankan Tamil war refugees detained by the government, the United Nations said Tuesday, raising concerns about their health. The strong rains last weekend lashed the northern Vavuniya district where over 250,000 people displaced during the final stages of the ethnic conflict […]
‘s image: opposition
August 17, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka risks further damage to its image by failing to improve conditions for tens of thousands of war-displaced people held in squalor, the island’s main opposition leader said on Monday.Opposition leader and former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe warned that the spread of diseases in the camps during the current rains […]
Sri Lanka central bank holds policy rates steady
Aug 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank held policy rates steady at 11.00 percent for the second straight month saying market interest rates were falling, inflation is bottoming out but expected to remain at single digits in 2009.“As in other parts of the world, in Sri Lanka too, inflation is expected to rise […]
Sri Lanka budget deficit expands at a slower pace in May 2009
Aug 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s runaway budget deficit expanded at a slower pace in May 2009, though the gap in the current account widened to a new record, the latest official data show. The revenue or current account deficit of the budget, which is the difference between total revenues and current (day-to-day) expenses, […]
Sri Lanka rupee shows life
Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – The rupee strengthened against the greenback Monday with state banks that usually represent the monetary authority staying off the market amid a large dollar inflow, dealers said. Speculators hit a currency when a central bank tries to keep a ‘soft’ peg. A central bank (especially one with exchange controls) through […]
Sri Lankan shares close flat, rupee up
Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed flat Monday as investors took defensive positions on mostly blue chip stocks that took a beating last week owing to poor June quarter results, while the rupee strengthened against the dollar, brokers and dealers said. The benchmark Colombo All Share Price Index (ASPI) closed down 0.03 […]
Tough Streak
Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s The Finance Company, a unit of the troubled Ceylinco group, said it lost 693 million rupees in the June 2009 quarter as net interest income remained negative and loan loss provisions continued to rise. The company had made a net profit of 45 million rupees in the same […]
Sri Lanka Maskeliya Plantations makes profit in June quarter
Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Maskeliya Plantations said June 2009 quarter net profit was marginally higher than a year ago despite lower sales and sharply higher finance costs. The company said in a stock exchange filing that net profit for the June quarter went up two percent to 53 million rupees from a […]
Sri Lanka core measure may have understated inflation: IMF study
Aug 17, 2009 (LBO) – An official core-inflation index for Sri Lanka may have understated underlying price pressures in 2008, but there is wide disagreement even among proponents of core measures about their calculation and usefulness, a new International Monetary Fund study has said. “Although not stated explicitly, it was implied that headline inflation would […]