Category:
World tourism shows surprise surge
MADRID, August 26, 2013 (AFP) – International tourist numbers surged by 5.2 percent to nearly half a billion people worldwide in the first half of 2013, beating earlier expectations, the United Nation’s World Tourism Organisation said Monday. Some 494 million international tourists spent at least one night abroad in the first six months of the […]
Bangladesh holds Fonterra milk products over scare
DHAKA, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – Bangladesh authorities have restricted imports of powdered milk mostly from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra following a contamination scare that has seen global recalls, officials said Tuesday. Customs officials are holding more than 600 tonnes of powdered milk mostly from Fonterra until mandatory chemical tests showed they were safe, […]
India says people can afford food-for-poor scheme as markets tank
NEW DELHI, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – India’s finance minister insisted Tuesday the government could afford a vast new food programme for the poor despite growing concern about public finances which drove the rupee to a new record low.The Indian currency, which has been under sustained pressure, fell 2.73 percent to 66.07 against the dollar […]
‘s rupee hits fresh lifetime low
MUMBAI, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – India’s rupee fell to a new low Tuesday on fears over the country’s slowing economy and the impact of a new food programme for the poor on already strained finances.The rupee, like currencies of other emerging markets, has also fallen on fears of foreign fund outflows as the US […]
‘s anti-corporate band wagon
Aug 27, 2013 (LBO) I grew up in nationalistic times. The talk was of prosperity driven by oil from Pesalai and fertilizer from Eppawala. We were told that we were not capturing the value of tea and rubber, because we were exporting them without adding value. Western imperialists were still in control, extracting most of […]
UN rights chief asked to trace Sri Lanka war missing
COLOMBO, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – Families of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s ethnic war demonstrated in the former rebel stronghold of Jaffna Tuesday as UN rights chief Navi Pillay visited the area on a fact-finding mission.Demonstrators led by women held photographs of their missing relatives outside the Jaffna library and urged Pillay, the […]
”
COLOMBO, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cultural affairs ministry has taken strong exception to a mass “wedding” of police dogs, which used symbols of traditional Buddhist nuptials on the Indian Ocean island. Culture Minister T.B. Ekanayake demanded an explanation for Monday’s ceremony in central Sri Lanka, which was intended to promote a programme […]
Sri Lanka signs economic and defence deals with Belarus
Aug 27, 2013 (LBO)- Sri Lanka has signed a series of bilateral deals involving trade, taxation, tourism and defence co-operation following a visit by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Belarus.Agreements on trade and economic co-operation, avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion, tourism and technical co-operation on military affairs had been signed, the media […]
UN-ESCAP boss at South Asia econ summit in Sri Lanka
Aug 27, 2013 (LBO) – Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) will deliver the keynote address a regional economic forum in Sri Lanka. The 6th South Asia Economic Summit (SAES), will start in Colombo on September 02. The Institute of Policy Studies, a […]
Sri Lanka at helm of South Asia free trade effort
Aug 26, 2013 (LBO) – South Asian nations have to cut negative lists to improve the people’s trade freedoms, a top regional official had said following a ministerial meet in the Island nation.Ahmed Salem, Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation had said a goal was established at a 2011 regional summit […]
”’ rating confirmed: RAM
Aug 26, 2013 (LBO) – RAM Ratings has cut outlook on a ‘BBB’ rating of Sri Lanka’s Sanasa Development Bank Plc, a micro-financier based on a co-operative concept, to ‘stable’ from ‘positive’. “The revision reflects a trend of weakening asset quality amidst an accretion in non-performing loans (NPLs) as well as the Bank’s moderated performance,” […]
Sri Lanka bond yields steady, money tighter
Aug 26, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s bonds opened flat Monday but money markets were tighter after excess liquidity in the interbank market gradually reduced last week, dealers said.Gilt-backed repos were quoted around 8.40/50 percent about and un-backed call money was quoted at 8.70/80 percent about 10/15 basis points higher than last week, dealers said. […]