Category: Economy and Markets

November 13, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s new law to nationalise “under utilised” private firms could shatter investor confidence and push the country into authoritarian rule, the opposition and press said Sunday. The bill was signed into law on Friday by parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapakse, the eldest brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse. The president, who […]

Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – An overwhelming 98.4 percent of respondents in a newspaper poll found fault with a law to selectively expropriate some three dozen firms which lawyers said was deeply flawed and trespassed on a constitutional separation of powers. The newspapers a respondent labelled chamber chiefs a set of “spineless leaders, lolling in […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is struggling to revive 23 troubled state enterprises, with salaries being paid with people’s tax money and hundreds of million rupees more to be paid as voluntary retirement compensation, a media report said. Other troubled state firms awaiting revival included Lanka Mineral Sands; Lanka Phosphate Ltd; Paranthan Chemical […]

Nov 13, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tax authorities should cooperate more with South Asian counterparts to be more vigilant of tax evasion by cross-border enterprises, international experts said in Colombo. “African national tax administrators have been cooperating on technical professional issues over quite a few years,” Allen Kagina, commissioner general of the Uganda Revenue […]

Nov 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment, the state investment promotion agency, has deleted a page which ‘guaranteed’ investors freedom from expropriation, raising questions of heightened political risk, lawmakers said. Sri Lanka passed a law to expropriate assets of 37 businesses, in several of which foreign investors were involved, after rushing it […]

NEW YORK, November 9, 2011 (AFP) – Worries that an Italian financial collapse could crack the eurozone sent markets tumbling Wednesday, with losses topping three percent in US trade. A selloff of Italian government bonds sent the yields to new highs above 7. 4 percent, a level seen unsustainable for the finances of the European […]

HONG KONG, November 10, 2011 (AFP) – Asian stock markets slumped on Thursday after Wall Street suffered a pummelling, with a surge in Italy’s borrowing costs fuelling global anxiety about the future of the euro. The common European currency dipped, Hong Kong stocks slumped more than four percent and in Tokyo, the Nikkei ended down […]

Nov 09, 2011 (LBO) – Stagnation in the United States and European Union might slow demand for Sri Lanka’s exports and a shift away from such reliance to new markets would help to cushion growth prospects, a new rating report said. “However, gradual normalisation may take place on the back of better economic conditions, to […]

Nov 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has bought property in New York as part of a move to establish overseas offices where the foreign reserves are invested, Governor Nivard Cabraal said. “We have bought office space, we will be having some our operations in other countries,” he said. “Initially we will give […]