Category: Money

Jan 23, 2008 (LBO) — The Sri Lanka rupee traded under 108.00 to the US dollar and overnight money fell from peaks above 20 percent in early trading Wednesday as the dollar weakened in international markets following a surprise rate cut, dealers said. The rupee traded around 107.88/108.92 in late trading as a state name […]

Jan 10, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank says that Treasuries yields will continue to ease following steep falls seen in government securities rates in the past two weeks.“It is expected that this declining trend of the interest rate structure in the market will be continued,” the public debt office, which is part of […]

Dec 28, 200 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s overnight rates spiked to 21 percent despite two discount windows that give money at 12.00 percent and 19.00 percent, while a bond auction was rejected by the government’s debt office Friday, dealers said. The debt office was again fishing for money offering bills on ‘tap’ at around 21.30 […]

Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s 3-month treasury bill yield soared 116 basis points to 21.30 percent amid a year-end cash crunch as the Central Bank refrained from printing money to intervene in the bill auction Wednesday.During the past four weeks, 3-month yields have shot up 523 basis points, 6-month 220 basis points and […]

Dec 20, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee closed higher against the greenback as money spiked in tight conditions Thursday, while the state debt office was again fishing for cash with short term bills offers, dealers said. Reserve money on Thursday was 270.4 billion rupees, marginally higher than the year-end target. Stocks closed marginally […]

Dec 10, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee came down from early highs of 108.10/20 against the greenback to lows of 109.50 in spot trade Monday showing unusual intra-day volatility, dealers said. Sri Lanka’s forex markets are not used to high levels of volatility as the Central Bank plays a market maker role to […]

Dec 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka rupee rose sharply against the greenback in spot trade Wednesday on the back of foreign purchases of rupee bonds, dealers said.The rupee hit an intra-day high of 108.70/80 against the greenback in late afternoon trading until state names which usually represent the monetary authority started to buy into […]

Nov 30, 2007 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Colombo’s capital jumped 4.4 percent in November keeping 12-month inflation at a record 19.6 percent for the second month running, the government’s statistics office said.The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) gained 253.2 points to move to 5976.2 index points. The moving average of the index, averaged over […]

Nov 28, 2007 (LBO) – One year treasury yields went up 100 basis points to 19.07 percent as the central bank stayed out of the primary market and allowed rates to go towards levels needed to bridge the budget deficit.The monetary authority has been struggling to contain inflation which was running at 19.6 percent in […]

Nov 12, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee strengthened to 110.32/35 in spot trade Monday recovering losses made last week dealers said, while the central bank was progressively reducing excess liquidity. In equity markets, the benchmark Colombo All Share Index closed up 0.46 percent at 2,631.43 and the Milanka Index of liquid stocks ended […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2007 (LBO) – IMF chief Rodrigo de Rato said countries emerging from conflict should be careful about commercial borrowing, but welcomed investor willingness to buy into local currency developing country bonds..Updated De Rato however said countries emerging from conflict should be careful about foreign commercial borrowing. Responding to a question on how […]