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Sri Lanka testing new tea plants
Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is testing new varieties of tea that have better ability to tolerate drought and disease, the head of the island’s tea research outfit said. Gerry Jayawardena, chairman of the Tea Research Institute, said the new types of tea plants were needed given changes in climate and consumer preferences […]
Sri Lanka January inflation slows to 3.8-pct
Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital rose 3.8 percent in January 2012 from a year earlier, slowing from 4.9 percent in December 2011, the state statistics office said. Prices measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in January 2012 after rising 1.2 percent during December 2011. Annual […]
Sri Lanka central bank clarifies IMF interest rates
Jan 31, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said it would only have to pay a higher interest rate for International Monetary Fund loans exceeding 300 percent of the country quota, and lower balances would only attract a rate of a little over 1.0 percent. The IMF has effectively suspended its 2.6 billion US […]
Sri Lanka sells long bonds
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has sold 10-year bonds to yield 10. 25 percent and 20-year bonds to yield 11. 0 percent at an auction Monday, the state debt office said. The debt office said 1,000 million rupees of 2022 bonds and 1,026 million rupees of 2032 bonds were sold. Dealers said a […]
Sri Lanka shares close up 0.5-pct
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankan closed higher Monday, on the back of Friday’s gains but a strong rally at the opening petered out towards the end as investors booked profit, brokers said. “Foreign participation stood at 18.3 percent of the total market activity and at the end of the day foreign investors were […]
Lease Business
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Citizens Development Business Finance Plc, a registered leasing firm, said profits fell 25 percent in the December 2011 quarter to 157 million rupees from a year earlier, mainly due to lower non-fund based income. Net assets rose from 1.0 billion rupees to 2.06 billion rupees from March to […]
Sri Lanka tea industry poverty still high: FAO
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Poverty levels in Sri Lanka’s tea industry are still too high and need to be addressed as a matter of priority, a senior official of the Food and Agriculture Organisation said. The FAO is also involved in the island’s tea industry and is supporting the National Institute of Plantations Managements […]
US fast food co Quiznos plans to open 150 outlets in India
NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Asia Pulse) – American quick service restaurant brand QUIZNOS is expanding in India with plans to set up around 150 outlets in the northern and western regions of the country in the next five years. Quiznos, which has entered into a master franchise agreement with Delhi-based restaurant management company Sub-one Hospitality […]
Sri Lanka telecom reform: positive externalities
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Reforms have costs. In any system, there are those who benefit from the status quo. Former President Kumaratunge once said in a speech that it used to cost 32,000 rupees to get a phone connection before the reforms. No idea how she found the number, but it seemed a reasonable […]
Sri Lanka may not need IMF money: economic minister
Jan 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka may not need the remaining 800 million dollars of International Monetary Fund money since reserves are still high, economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa said. “When we borrow the money it goes into monetary reserves and they have to be invested in another country, for a small difference in […]
‘s ITC for hotel: report
Jan 29, 2012 (LBO) – India’s ITC group has paid a 50 percent advance payment for beachfront land in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo where it plans to build a luxury hotel, a media report said. The Sunday Times newspaper quoted economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa as saying that 73.5 million US dollars or 50 percent […]
Tele Trend
Jan 29, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s fixed wireless users shrank 1.4 percent to 2.63 million in the third quarter of 2011, from a year earlier, but internet users, which include mobile broad bank rose 100 percent, official data shows. . Fixed wireline grew 4.6 percent to 929,851. Sri Lanka Telecom, the island’s only wireline […]