Category: Economy and Markets

Apr 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s pampered state-enterprises, often overstaffed, and usually distinguished with poor customer service, are to get tax-write offs, a media report said, as the private sector is squeezed by yet new taxes. State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation which has borrowed 150 million rupees from the Treasury will qualify for relief […]

Apr 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is urging commercial banks to cut lending rates to stimulate growth while heavy government borrowing continues to crowd out the productive sectors. On April 08, Sri Lanka’s average commercial bank prime lending rate was 19.34 percent. Banks are taxed to the hilt, and have to cope […]

April 11, 2009 (AFP) – At least one in four children displaced by Sri Lanka’s ongoing fighting between troops and Tamil Tigers was malnourished, the health ministry said Saturday.Supplies to the area have been few and far between because of the intensity of fighting while the authorities have also severely restricted access for humanitarian agencies […]

Apr 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation will hit zero by the middle of the year, a senior central banker said, with 12-month price inflation in the capital Colombo already down to 5.3 percent in March 2009. However, analysts expect the rupee to weaken from May onwards adjusting to previous loose monetary policy under […]

April 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has said it plans to entice the Tamil diaspora to invest in reviving the war-ravaged north and has set up a separate division to oversee all rehabilitation activities. “The institutional impediments to commencing productive activities in all sectors of the province will also be addressed gradually.” The government […]

April 08, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is tripling a newly introduced non-recoverable business turnover tax from May 01, 2009 as the country grapples with a currency crisis, and state revenues fall with a slowing economy. Profligate fiscal policies followed since 2004 have now landed the island in a currency crisis and made it ill-prepared […]

April 08, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government finances had been busted in 2008 with revenues 95 billion rupees below target, 118 billion rupees being printed by the central bank, while foreign financing turned negative, the latest official data show. In recent years it has become the practice in Sri Lanka to present fairy tale […]

April 07, 2009 (LBO) – The Netherlands will stop giving aid to Sri Lanka due to an internal conflict, ending a longstanding partnership which had given 30 to 40 million Euros each year to the island, a media report said. A web report of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Sinhala Service said the Netherlands government had […]

April 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cash-strapped government has been unable to offer relief to the private sector over lengthy delays in getting value-added tax (VAT) refunds.Private sector officials said companies were facing cash-flow problems owing to the delays in VAT refunds on the part of the Inland Revenue Department. Tax department officials said […]

April 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has urged the government to curb recruitment into the hugely over-staffed and inefficient state sector, given the difficulties caused by economic slowdown.The government has said it expects growth to be boosted by an economic revival in the north and east, which has been cleared of Tamil […]