Category: Economy

May 05, 2007 (LBO) – The use of air power by Tamil Tiger guerrillas has raised the stakes in investing in Sri Lanka and prospects of higher defence spending is increasing fiscal risks, analysts said. Sri Lanka needs fiscal discipline and increases in turnover based value added tax (VAT) rates and its base to solve […]

April 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation fell for the third month in a row in April after the Central Bank stopped printing money to finance the budget deficit and tightened monetary policy from December 2006. Consumer price increases in the past twelve months measured by the Colombo Consumer Price index fell to 16.3 […]

April 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankans were stocking up on snacks, soft drinks, ice cream and liquor on Saturday to watch their home team battle Australia at the cricket World Cup finals in the Caribbean. Supermarkets, grocery and wine stores were reporting brisk sales as customers stood in lengthy queues. “It took us nearly […]

COLOMBO, April 27, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is banking on the publicity from the cricket World Cup to attract foreign investment and tourism to the South Asian island nation better known for its separatist conflict.As the home team prepares for the final clash with Australia on Saturday, the Caribbean event has offered an unexpected […]

April 26, 2007 (LBO) – A team of French businessmen representing sectors such as textiles, shipping, energy, railways and environment is visiting the island, the French Embassy announced Thursday. The businessmen will be accompanied by French government officials from the Treasury, Finance Ministry and development agencies as well as trade advisors. The delegation will take […]

April 24, 2007 (LBO) – More post-tsunami recovery work is needed in Sri Lanka especially in the north and east of the island, at a community level, a donor agency has said. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has been working with local community based organizations and non-governmental organizations, through a 300 million rupee fund. […]

April 24, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s top trade chamber is kicking off an economic an investment forum in June, to boost growth to double digits and build consensus and partnership among the public and private sector, officials said. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is hosting the three-day ‘Sri Lanka Economic Summit’ starting June 08, […]

April 23, 2007 (LBO) – The ‘negative’ outlook on Sri Lanka’s BB- rating could be upgraded to ‘stable’ if Sri Lanka could produce better budgets, reduce inflation and show that the conflict’s effect on the country’s ability to repay debt had lessened, Fitch Ratings has said. The rating agency Monday affirmed Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating […]

April 22, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan exporters have been slapped with a host of new fees that were increasing their costs, and reducing their competitiveness, an official said. In the last few months, shippers have been called to pay a growing number of new fees by shipping lines, freight forwarders and others in the […]

April 20, 2007 (LBO) – Authorities in Sri Lanka are trying to counter growing public awareness that 38.5 billion rupees were printed to finance the budget deficit last year, which also drove inflation to 19.3 percent by December, despite the information being publicly available. Deputy Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was responding to a news story […]

April 19, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee fell to a new low of 110.50 to the dollar in early trading Thursday dealers said, while short-term interest rates eased. The rupee had ended just short of 110 to the dollar earlier in the month with high rupee interest rates encouraging exporters to convert to […]

April 18, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s new investment promotion chief said Wednesday he wants to speed up approvals but also be more selective in targeting investors and eliminate attitudes that favour foreigners. Much land earmarked for prospective investors in investment zones, or expansion of existing projects, had not been used while the BOI told […]