Category: Economy

June 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first quarter 2011 state revenues rose 19. 5 percent from a year earlier to 218.4 billion rupees ahead of annual projections of 17. 8 percent with people paying 24.3 percent more taxes , but the revenue deficit was wide. Current expenses pulled ahead at a 9. 9 percent […]

June 1, 2011 (AFP) – Two senior Sri Lankan police officers have been arrested over live rounds fired at protests against a pension bill at which 150 people were injured in violent clashes. Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said the two inspectors were held over their conduct at Monday’s protest in Katunayake, a town near the […]

June 01, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Export Processing Zone next to the Katunayake international airport is to be reopened Thursday following violent protests by workers against a new government pension bill they opposed. The Board of Investment said it requests all employees attached to the enterprises in the zone, north of Colombo, to report […]

May 31, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports surged 54 percent in March to 1,057 million dollars, topping a billion dollars for the first time helped by a steep increase in industrial goods as well as rising commodity prices, official data showed. Investment goods imports rose 95 percent to 163 million US dollars and consumer […]

May 31, 2011 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 8. 8 percent in May 2011 from a year earlier, decelerating from a high of 9.8 percent in April, the government’s statistics office data showed. The country’s interbank money markets are flushed with excess liquidity. But in the month of May the […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector financing arm, said it could double investments in Sri Lanka to nearly 70 million dollars a year after a 30-year war ended in the country. “We are ready to step up our investment in the post conflict era,” Pavol Wajda, program coordinator […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – International Finance Corporation, World Bank’s private sector arm, Dialog Axiata and IBM Corporation is seeing growing use of a web based business training platform backed by mobile delivery in Sri Lanka, officials said. IFC’s business toolkit developed by IBM has been adapted to Sri Lanka since 2008 targeting small and […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – A proposed controversial ‘pension’ bill to strengthen state control over forced retirement savings of private sector workers will not apply to export industrial zones, the government said as protesters and police were injured in clashes. Sri Lanka has had three armed uprisings in the past four decades where tens of […]

May 29, 2011 (LBO) – Protests against a controversial attempt by the state to grab long term control of private sector workers’ retirement funds and deduct more money from their salaries are rising. The Sunday Times newspaper said more than 10,000 workers from Sri Lanka’s export processing zones took part in protests last week. Workers […]

May 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation is expected to come down in May following spike to 9. 8 percent in the 12-month to April and the central bank is comfortable with the current interest rates, Governor Nivard Cabraal said. Sri Lanka has a pegged exchange rate and foreign exchange market interventions generate rupees […]

May 23, 2011 (LBO) – An international terrorism expert has suggested Sri Lanka’s private sector should employ former Tamil Tiger separatist fighters who have been rehabilitated to help ensure they don’t return to violence. Sri Lanka’s 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009 resulting in accelerated economic growth and a tourism boom. Gunaratna said many […]

BIG SKY, May 22, 2011 (AFP) – As high food prices push millions of people into poverty, major farming nations are resisting calls to impose trade restrictions and are committing to keep global markets open. APEC — a 21-member Asia-Pacific bloc that encompasses more than half of the world economy and includes the United States, […]