Category: Economy

May 14, 2009 (LBO) – The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it is providing training scholarships to 500 young people from Sri Lanka’s north and east which is recovering from decades of war.The scholarships are given through the agency’s Unlimited Potential Partnership program (UPP) which currently provides workforce training programs in three key […]

BANDA ACEH, May 14, 2009 (AFP) – Fifty-five Sri Lankan migrants were intercepted Thursday off the coast of western Indonesia as they tried to reach Australia to look for work, police said.Fishermen found the migrants, men aged from 25 to 30, aboard a damaged wooden boat two kilometres (just over a mile) from the coast […]

May 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka formally presented its claim for sovereignty over an extended continental shelf around the island under international law to the United Nations last Friday, government officials said. The claim will be considered at the 24th session of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to be […]

May 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state revenues have fallen 10.6 percent in the two months to February 2009, amid a slowing economy and collapsing imports while expenses are still rising, the latest official data shows. Inflation It is unusual for Sri Lanka’s revenues to fall on an absolute basis. Coupled with inflation, Sri […]

May 10, 2009 (LBO) – Re-building Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east should be eventually driven by the private sector, rather than an unsustainable donor-financed state sector, a senior United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) official said. Douglas Keh, head of UNDP in Sri Lanka, also said good governance and a government commitment to devolving adequate […]

May 08, 2009 (LBO) – Recent rallies in stock markets may be short-lived, and a ‘W’ patterned economic revival is more likely if the Fed fails to quell an expected inflation bout early, a top monetary economist has warned. “I believe we are headed for a W-shaped recovery, with a down-up-down pattern,” Steve Hanke, professor […]

May 06, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is set to formally submit its claim for sovereignty over a bigger area of the ocean floor surrounding the island under international law, officials said. “The survey confirmed the assumptions made by Sri Lanka’s Law of the Sea delegation in 1970s and 1980s regarding the location of 1km […]

OTTAWA, May 4, 2009 (AFP) – Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda announced Monday an increase in humanitarian aid for civilians displaced by ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka.Ottawa will provide three million dollars (2.5 million US) to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the World Food Programme and […]

May 5, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said it had asked banks to cut interest charged on loans which remain high despite policy rate cuts, while its grip on overnight is also tenuous due to quantity restrictions on discount windows.The Central Bank said it has “informed the licensed banks to take appropriate measures […]

May 4, 2009 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government is increasingly tilting towards Iran, Libya and China for foreign aid as its traditional Western allies ramp up their criticism of the war against Tamil rebels. Many Western nations have outlawed the Tamil Tigers and cut off their funding networks, but the Colombo administration is deeply […]

May 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan businesses should be more cautious and assess customer creditworthiness more often, when doing business during a recession, a senior corporate executive said. They should watch out for bad debts as during such times previously solvent customers can quickly become insolvent, says Chemanex chief executive Preethi Jayawardena who was […]

May 2, 2009 (LBO) – Technical levels discussions for Sri Lanka’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan have now been finalized and with the UN Security Council also not standing in the way, there would be no further delays, a senior central banker said. Media reports indicated the United States, which has substantial say in IMF […]