Category: Commodity
President appoints committee to study Sri Lanka – Singapore FTA
Aug 11, 2018 (LBO) – President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed an independent committee comprising of five experts to study and report on the Free Trade Agreement signed with Singapore. Former Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University, Professor W. D. Lakshman will chair this committee, media reports said, quoting President’s Media Division. Other members include Professor Sirimevan Colombage from […]
Sri Lanka President, Fin Min agree to go ahead with fuel price formula, Prices hiked
Jul 10, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President and Finance Minister following meeting earlier Tuesday decided to revise its fuel prices according to an earlier cabinet approved pricing formula. Accordingly the price of one litre of Petrol (Octane 92) will be increased by 8 rupees to 145 rupees, Petrol (Octane 95) will be increased by 7 rupees to […]
Simplifying exporter registration process is critical for export success: Study
July 10, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s current exporter registration process is unnecessarily lengthy, inefficient and unduly burdensome especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), a recent study has found.According to the main findings of a study conducted by Verité Research shows that many of these unnecessary steps cannot be justified on a rational basis. […]
Central Bank maintains policy interest rates at current levels
July 06, 2018 (LBO) – Monetary Board of the Central Bank, at its meeting held on 05 July 2018, has decided to maintain policy interest rates at their current levels.Accordingly, the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) remain at 7.25 per cent and 8.50 per cent, respectively. The Board’s decision is […]
No backward calculation to obtain GDP with pre-decided deflators: Stats Office
July 03, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s statistics office rejecting the recent claims on the GDP estimates said it is almost impossible to carry out backward calculations to obtain GDP with pre-decided GDP deflators. Releasing a statement, Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) said it is also not an internationally accepted practice of estimating national […]
Sri Lanka’s outlook remains stable but is conditional on reforms: World Bank
June 28, 2018 (LBO) – World Bank says a challenging domestic political environment has already taken a toll, slowing down some reforms and complicating the stable medium-term outlook and an impending election cycle which will only elevate this risk. World Bank, releasing its June 2018 edition of the Sri Lanka Development Update said the reforms are […]
Sri Lanka to introduce Euro 4 fuel in July, No impact on current pricing
Jun 14, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources Development said the Government will introduce Euro 4 fuel to the market and replace super diesel and 95 octane petrol, in July.“Euro 4 doesn’t affect petrol (Octane 92) and auto diesel to leave the market and the prices won’t also rise.Euro 4 will be sold as […]
New MLA amendments to restrict financing fiscal deficit by Central Bank
June 05, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said there will be new legislative amendments to Monetary Law Act (MLA) to restrict financing the fiscal deficit of the government by the Central Bank. Currently, the Central bank has been compelled to purchase Treasury bills in the primary market at times without regard to monetary […]
Sri Lanka signs agreement for gas exploration services
May 31, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, signed an agreement with Eastern Echo DMCC, subsidiary of a major oilfield services company Schlumberger, Wednesday to explore prospects for oil and gas resources in selected offshore areas of the island. The company will collect, market and license of petroleum data on “multi-client” basis, enabling […]
Central Bank to create intervention rules for foreign exchange market
May 23, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is to introduce several rules, the officials need to follow when they are intervening in the foreign exchange market, Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said. Speaking at a recent event, Coomaraswamy, however, said Central Bank’s intervention in the forex market will only be limited to smooth […]
SL – China FTA would result in higher gains for Sri Lankan exports: Study
May 22, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka – China FTA would result in higher gains for Sri Lankan exports compared to products imported from China which are already entering Sri Lanka duty free, a recent study showed. The study carried out by the Economics Research Team of Verité Research, however, noted that the analysis is […]
Sri Lanka inflation slows to 1.6-pct in April, lowest since Feb 2016
May 22, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s headline inflation measured by National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) has decreased to 1.6 percent in April, lowest since February 2016, from 2.8 percent in March 2018. The decline in the year-on-year inflation in April 2018 was mainly driven by the higher base resulted by the increase in prices […]