Category: Economy and Markets
Sri Lanka opens T-bills to foreigners
May 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has allowed foreign investors to buy short term treasury bills from Tuesday, the government’s debt office said, as global credit conditions made buyers wary of long term instruments. Sri Lanka had permitted foreign investors to buy Treasury bonds which have a maturity of one year or more in […]
Sri Lanka highways authority funds drained by overstaffing: official
May 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s road development bureaucracy is hugely overstaffed and a drain on public funds and unable to effectively maintain the island’s road network, a senior government official says. Sirisena Amarasekera, secretary, ministry of highways and road development, says there are around 10,000 people, including maintenance workers, in highway and road […]
Sri Lanka central bank suppressing interest rates: researcher
May 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank is keeping interest rates suppressed and below the inflation rate to reduce government borrowing costs and maintain a high growth rate that presents a ‘rosy’ picture, a researcher says. “Galloping inflation is also due to suppression of the interest rate by the government,” says Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, […]
Sri Lankan shares edge up on SLT, Carsons
May 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s shares closed marginally higher with retail interest in Sri Lanka Telecom and Carsons pushing indices higher, brokers said Monday.The All Share Price Index closed up 0.47 percent (12.49 points) at 2,648.23 points while the more liquid Milanka index closed 0.48 percent (15.69 points) higher at 3,250.99. State-owned fixed […]
Sri Lanka central bank responds to IMF letter
May 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank, which earlier protested an International Monetary Fund study on external impacts on inflation, has welcomed comments by a top IMF official based on results which were further disaggregated. Sri Lanka has been buffeted by chronic high inflation and balance of payments crises since a central bank […]
IMF welcomes Sri Lanka monetary and fiscal tightening; clarifies external shock study
May 02, 2008 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund says it backs moves by Sri Lanka’s central bank to tighten monetary policy as well as ‘economically correct but politically difficult’ decisions by the island to reduce fuel and food subsidies. The head of IMF’s Asia Department David Burton says a recent IMF working paper on […]
Sri Lanka govt running out of time to fix economy: study
May 02, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is running out of time to fix the economy, with inflation out of control and other economic fundamentals steadily deteriorating, a new research paper on the economy says. With the regime of President Mahinda Rajapakse nearing its half term (by November 2008) and the parliamentary election […]
Sri Lankan shares becalmed; Lanka Cement up
May 02, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shares closed virtually flat Friday in thin trading with Lanka Cement, which has been moving on speculative trading, ending firmer, brokers said. The All Share Price Index was barely changed, up just 2.78 points (0.11 percent) to 2,635.74 while the more liquid Milanka index fell 1.98 points (0.06 […]
Sri Lanka signs up more money to broaden highway
May 01, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has signed up additional funds to augment a highway to the south of the island which is jointly financed by the Asian Development Bank and the Japan, the finance ministry said. The 90 million dollar supplementary loan will finance a 29.3 kilometre stretch on the Southern Highway starting […]
Sri Lanka gets Dutch aid to build big fisheries harbour
May 01, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has signed a deal with the Netherlands government to get eight billion rupees (44.9 million euro) in aid to build a fisheries harbour to accommodate deep sea trawlers and develop the island’s fishing industry. The port will be built in Dikowita on the western coast, fisheries minister Felix […]
Federal Reserve under fire as commodity bubble wreaks chaos; WSJ says Bernanke addicted to printing
April 30, 2008 (LBO) – The Federal Reserve money printing that has fired a commodity bubble causing malnutrition and food riots in poor countries is increasingly coming under fire, with mainstream media adding their voice to a growing flood of critics. After the sub-prime bubble started to unravel last July the Fed has cut rates […]
Sri Lanka Sinhala news service, central bank talks economics online
April 28, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s pioneer Unicode Sinhala news portal, Vimasuma.com and the Central Bank has teamed up to produce a series of educational discussions targeted at economics students and the public. The multimedia discussion series which can be viewed online at www.vimasuma.com is aimed at economics teachers, students of economics and others […]