Category: Economy

May 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s deal with the International Monetary Fund was back on track with a review mission being ready to hammer out a new deal with fresh targets to rein in its runaway fiscal deficit on the basis of a budget due in June. In 2009 Sri Lanka’s rulers busted a […]

BERLIN, May 22, 2010 (AFP) – The head of Europe’s central bank and Pope Benedict XVI Saturday laid into governments for a lack of financial rigour, after investors battered the euro over fears of unsustainable debts. With the euro having plunged to a four-year low against the dollar in the past week, ECB chief Jean-Claude […]

May 21, 2010 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to release the next tranche of its program loan to Sri Lanka in 4-6 weeks if its management and board are satisfied with the island’s budget deficit for 2010, an official said. Policy talks were encouraging, visiting IMF mission chief Brian Aitken told […]

May 20, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said it was holding policy rates steady at 9.75 percent amid a pick up in bank credit to private businesses and a dip in annual inflation in April 2010. “Developments in the monetary sector have been encouraging,” the Central Bank said. “Credit obtained by the private […]

May 17, 2010 (AFP) – Heavy rains forced the indefinite postponement of Sri Lanka’s military parade marking the first anniversary of its defeat of Tamil rebels, officials said Monday as flash floods killed four people. The island’s two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February. The victory celebrations scheduled for […]

May 17, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state revenues picked up sharply in February 2010 to 108. 6 billion rupees in the first two months, up 17 percent from a year earlier, containing the budget deficit at around last year’s level, despite rising current spending, official data showed. Current expenses rose 7.2 percent to 181.3 […]

May 14, 2010 (LBO) – The chairman of Sri Lanka’s largest bank, state-run Bank of Ceylon Gamini Wickramasinghe has been re-appointed amid a series of changes made to boards of state institutions following general elections in April. Wickramasinghe is head of Informatics, an information technology group and has a masters degree in systems analysis from […]

GROS ISLET, May 13, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said the team had no-one else to blame but themselves after a seven-wicket World Twenty20 semi-final loss to England here on Thursday. Last year’s losing finalists were all but out of the game after being restricted to 128 for six, having lost their […]

May 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s investment promotion agency will re-assess its strategy following the end of a long drawn out separatist war with plans for a stronger focus to attract investments from the United States and Europe, officials said. The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka now has a five-year corporate plan. But […]

May 13, 2010 (LBO) – India’s is keen to push head with a trade and services liberalization deal with Sri Lanka which was scuttled by protectionist forces in the island on the brink of signing, a media report said. There is already an Indo-Lanka Free Trade Arrangement which had liberalized a range of traded goods […]

May 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state investment promotion agency is processing almost 500 million dollars of new deals mainly into leisure and is planning two investments zones in the former war-torn north of the island, officials said. Kulasekara said the end of the war had opened up two-thirds of the country’s beach areas […]

BRUSSELS, May 10, 2010 (AFP) – Europe and the IMF gave a major boost to world markets Monday with a trillion-dollar war chest to ease fears of a new recession, but governments faced pressure to clean up their fiscal houses. Some 440 billion euros would come from eurozone nations and 60 billion euros from the […]