Category: Economy and Markets

July 21, 2008 (LBO) – India’s prime minister has promised to raise the issue of alleged attacks by the Sri Lanka navy on Indian fishermen at a South Asian regional summit next month, a media report said.India’s Economic Times newspaper said the Tamil Nadu Congress president K V Thangkabalu had led a delegration to meet […]

July 21, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is getting a 22.6 million US dollar credit from the World Bank’s concessionary window to improve the government statistics and audit offices, the multilateral lender said. “This project will help the government to further strengthen statistical capacity and audit functions which are at the core of public administration […]

July 19, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will ban the duty-free import of a range of white goods now allowed to be brought into the country by returning citizens that worked abroad, a senior revenue official said.Sri Lanka Customs would not allow any type of air conditioners, deep freezers or dishwashers and fully automatic washing […]

July 18, 2008 (LBO) – The World Bank is giving 98 million US dollars in additional financing for road re-building in Sri Lanka amid soaring costs of oil based materials, the multilateral lender said. “The project has made good overall progress,” says World Bank infrastructure specialist Amali Rajapaksa. “Importantly, it has played a pivotal role […]

July 18, 2008 LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade gap had expanded 79 percent to 2.5 billion US dollars in the five months to May 2008 on higher imports of oil while industrial exports slowed, government data showed. The Central Bank said 58 percent of the increase in imports came from oil and 21 percent from […]

July 18, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is not ready to sign a trade pact with India, senior officials said as protests mounted from domestic business interests and a partner of the ruling coalition.Local business interests that fear Indian competition also spoke out against the deal. They said the government should first ensure that true […]

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008 (AFP) – US consumer prices soared at the strongest pace in 26 years in June, rising 1.1 percent from May, the Labor Department said Wednesday. On a 12-month basis, CPI was up 5.0 percent in June and core CPI was 2.4 percent higher. Core prices excluding energy and food climbed 0.3 […]

July 16, 2008 (LBO) – US consumer prices hit a 26-year as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke came under renewed fire from a US senator for printing money willy-nilly and stampeding the world into an inflation crisis. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics said 12-month consumer prices of urban consumers surged to 5.0 percent in […]

July 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has tightened its year-end growth target for the monetary base in 2008 to 11.75 percent from 12.50 percent, the island’s central bank, which is running a quantity targeting framework to counter inflation, said.In April 2008 the bank tightened targets further from its beginning-of-the year plan, after inflation spiked […]