Category: Policy
Sri Lanka Central Bank maintains policy interest rates at current levels
Apr 08, 2019 (LBO) – Monetary Board of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank at its meeting held today decided to maintain policy interest rates at their current levels. Accordingly, the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank will remain at 8.00 percent and 9.00 percent, respectively. “The Board […]
50 percent probability for a policy rate cut in April: First Capital Research
Apr 02, 2019 (LBO) – First Capital Research allocates a 50 percent probability for a policy rate cut in Apr 2019 as they are of the view that policy intervention is appropriate to address the overly sluggish economic growth.Sluggish sentiment in Sri Lanka’s economy has been a major concern with the latest GDP growth for […]
OBG Sri Lanka report:Looks at steps being taken to encourage innovation and boost export earnings to USD20Bn in 2019
Mar 27, 2019 (LBO) – A new report from research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG) shines a spotlight on Sri Lanka’s wide-ranging plan to achieve upper-middle-income status. The Report: Sri Lanka 2019 looks in detail at the steps being taken to encourage innovation across the manufacturing industry as part of the national strategy to […]
SL fiscal consolidation plans challenging without policy effectiveness and faster growth
Mar 12, 2019 (LBO) – Achieving Sri Lanka’s deficit and debt targets will be challenging without a significant increase in fiscal policy effectiveness and faster Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, a rating agency said in a statement. ‘Sri Lanka’s ambitious fiscal consolidation targets – when the country has not had a fiscal deficit below 5.0 […]
Central Bank decides to reduce SRR & keep policy rates unchanged
Feb 22, 2019 (LBO) – The Monetary Board of the Central Bank, at its meeting held on 21 February 2019, has decided to reduce the Statutory Reserve Ratio (SRR) applicable on all rupee deposit liabilities of commercial banks by 1.00 percentage point to 5.00 percent with effect from 01 March 2019. The Board also decided to […]
First Capital Research expects a continuation of policy rates at current levels
Feb 21, 2019 (LBO) – First Capital Research said it expects a continuation of monetary policy rates at current levels although they recognize an increased probability of 10 percent for a rate cut considering the prevailing below par GDP growth and sluggish credit growth. First Capital Research expects the Central Bank to keep Statutory Reserve […]
Sri Lanka Development Update: Navigating Sri Lanka’s demographic change
Feb 14, 2019 (LBO) – The latest edition of the World Bank’s Sri Lanka Development Update (SLDU) finds the island in a challenging macroeconomic landscape. The post-conflict high growth momentum has decelerated.A volatile global environment and structurally weak competitiveness continue to weaken growth and external sector performance. High interest costs mask limited fiscal improvement. The […]
Eminent lawyer K Kanag-Isvaran highlights need for Tax Ombudsman
Feb 07, 2019 (LBO) – President’s Counsel Dr. K. Kanag-Isvaran, who is one of the country’s most respected lawyers highlighted the need for a “Tax Ombudsman” in Sri Lanka. He highlighted this delivering the keynote speech at the 22nd Annual Tax Oration of CA Sri Lanka on “The Tax Collector and The Rights of the […]
Appropriation Bill for 2019 presented in parliament
Feb 05, 2019 (LBO) – The Appropriation Bill for the year 2019 was presented in parliament by Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka, Tuesday. The Cabinet in early January approved the Appropriation Bill for 2019 with an annual expenditure of Rs 4,470 billion with the Ministry of Defence secured the highest allocation of 393 billion rupees. The Ministry of Education […]
Sri Lanka reserves at USD7.0Bn
Jan 29, 2019 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Governments’s gross official reserves stood at US dollars 7.0 billion which was equivalent to 3.7 months of imports at end November 2018, data shows. Total foreign assets, which consist of gross official reserves and foreign assets of the banking sector, amounted to US dollars 9.7 billion as at […]
Sri Lanka Govt introduces more loans for 3-wheel owners and migrant workers
Jan 28, 2019 (LBO) – The Finance Ministry under the Enterprise Sri Lanka concessionary loan scheme is to introduce further concessionary loans to widen the schemes enabling the stake holders to move towards next generation economic activities in their areas of activities. Accordingly migrant workers will be given up to 10 million rupees concessionary housing loans […]
Sri Lanka vehicle registration down in Dec 2018
Jan 28, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s vehicle registrations across all categories showed a slowdown in December 2018, a new research report said. “Across all categories there has been a slowdown in registrations in December,” data compiled by JB Securities, an equities research firm report shows. ” This is as a result of the measures […]