Sri Lanka pushes up food prices to increase farmer profits

Sept 19, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has pushed up food prices of the people to provide greater profits to the farming lobby, while another tax on canned fish has also been raised, a notice published by the finance ministry said. The finance ministry said a tax on potatoes has been raised by 30 rupees […]

Sri Lanka stocks down 0.98 pct

Sept 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka stocks closed down 0.98 percent Tuesday, taking a breather from steady gains made over several days. The benchmark Colombo All Share Price Index dropped 58.28 points to close at 5,9110.81 down 0.98 percent and the S&P SL 20 index closed down 1.03 percent at 3,177.73 points up 32.97 […]

Sri Lanka destination promotion during Twenty20 cricket series

Sept 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourism promotion office said it will promote the Indian Ocean Island during a cricket series in a deal struck with the governing body of the popular fast version of the sport watched by millions of fans around the world. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau will be the official […]

Tele Expansion

Sept 18, 2012 (LBO) – Mobitel, a unit of Sri Lanka Telecom, the island’s largest telecom group has signed a 40 million US dollar deal with China’s ZTE to build base stations, and Huawei, another Chinese firm to expand network capacity. Huawei said in a statement that it had inked a deal to renovate and […]

Sri Lanka keeps policy rates unchanged, says credit slowing

Sept 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank kept its key policy rate at which money is injected to the economy at 9. 75 percent saying credit was slowing and balance of payments pressure and inflation was easing. The central bank said average monthly bank credit volumes had fallen to about 27 billion rupees […]

Sri Lanka sells US$121mn in 3-year bonds

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has sold US121.05 million US dollars of 3-year bonds at a weighted average yield of 400 basis points above the 6-month London Interbank Offered Rate, the state debt office said. Sri Lanka offered 60 million US dollars of bonds for sale but 121. 05 million in bids were […]

Logistics

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas group said it has formed a logistics company with Forwardair Logistics (Pvt) Ltd, taking 50 percent of the joint venture and branding it Hemas Logistics. “With this joint venture we will expand our integrated logistics solutions capability through container transport and the movement of over-dimensional and project […]

Faster Roads

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank has approved 98 million US dollars in additional financing to expand a road re-building program in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province and war torn Northern Province. The project will reduce travel time on the road by an average of 20 percent from the 2010 level. “The […]

Bank Rating

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has confirmed an ‘AAA(lka)’ rating of Sri Lanka’s Standard Chartered Bank brand based on support from its parent. The bank is facing a 27 billion rupee fine related to an alleged exchange control violation which has been appealed, but Fitch says it is likely that there will be […]

Sri Lanka power generation up 5.6-pct in first half

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s power generation rose 5.3 percent to 5,875 GigaWatt hours (millions of units) in the six month to June from a year earlier, while growth during the month was 2.0 percent, official data shows. During the month of June power generation rose 2. 0 percent to 982GWh. CEB’s hydro […]

Sri Lanka economy grows 6.4-pct in 2Q: statistics office

Sept 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy grew 6.4 percent in the second quarter of 2012 from a year earlier, slowing from 7.9 percent in the first quarter, gross domestic product estimates by the state statistics office showed. The statistics office said agriculture grew 9.1 percent from a year earlier, industry grew 9. 5 […]

Sri Lanka banks on cricket to repair image

COLOMBO, Sept 17, 2012 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is banking on cricket to repair the damage to its blood-stained image after the brutal end to a 37-year ethnic war as it stages the biggest tournament in the nation’s post-independence history. Since declaring an end in 2009 to a conflict that claimed up to 100,000 lives, […]

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