Tag: business

Aug 07, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s credit rating can be upgraded if fiscal and monetary policy improves leading to greater stability and steady growth and more foreign direct investment and less debt comes for investment, a senior Fitch Ratings official said.Sri Lanka has a ‘BB-‘ speculative rating, three levels below investment grade with a […]

Aug 07, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has halted the sale of imported baby formula following a contamination scare over New Zealand made dairy products and media organizations will be asked to stop advertising milk products, a senior health official said.Heath services director general Palitha Mahipala said a food advisory committee that met yesterday had […]

Aug 06, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget deficit will narrow and debt will slow with falling domestic interest rates and public private partnerships in infrastructure, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. “We will see a huge reduction in interest costs,” Cabraal told a sovereign and banking forum organized by Fitch. In 2014 the budget […]

Aug 05, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy is growing faster despite a slow global recovery, but the country needs more savings and foreign direct investments to reduce borrowings, senior rating analysts at Fitch said.Andrew Colquhoun, senior director and head of Asia Pacific sovereign ratings said a global recovery was still patchy, with the outlook […]

Aug 02, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka ‘s Softlogic group said it had appointed two senior executives with domestic and international experience to head the group risk and audit function and its retail unit. After starting at KPMG Ford Rhodes Thornton & Company in 1981 he moved to Singer Industries (Ceylon) Ltd, and moved to […]

Aug 01, 2013 (LBO) – Standard and Poor’s has confirmed Sri Lanka’s ‘B+’ sovereign rating with a stable outlook but warned on government debt and weak institutions. Sri Lanka’s external liquidity remains exposed to international liquidity conditions. Through 2015, we project that Sri Lanka’s gross external financing needs will exceed 120% of current account receipts […]

July 31, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised taxes on cigarettes to bring in an additional 1.4 billion rupees in revenues for the rest of the year, an official said. Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera said tax revenues were picking up with an improvement seen in customs collections. The price of cigarettes based on […]

July 31, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised taxes on hard alcohol by 75 rupees a litre and beer by 10 rupees per litre along with cigarettes which will help keep revenue targets on track, an official said. The mid-year tax hike will not bring in additional revenue above budget projections but simply keep […]

July 31, 2013 (LBO)- Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 6.1 percent in July 2013 from year earlier easing from 6.8 percent in June, with the index gaining 0.2 percent in the month, the state statistics office said. But this time policy has been loosened aggressively, the exchange rate has been weaker and […]

July 30, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tax revenues are picking up helped by stronger customs collections, Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera said.Sri Lanka’s state revenues were 51 billion rupees below target in the first four months Jayasundera said revenues were better in June and July with a pick in vehicle imports also contributing. Sri […]

July 29, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is hoping to cut the budget deficit to 4.0 percent of gross domestic product and generate a 2.0 percent revenue surplus, Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera said.Sri Lanka ran a 6.4 percent of gross domestic product overall deficit in the budget in 2012 and a 1.4 percent revenue […]

July 29, 2013 (LBO) – Foreign direct investment flows to Sri Lanka in the first half of 2013 reached 430 million US dollars and the full year was expected to bring 2.0 billion US dollars, investment promotion minister Lakshman Abeywardena said. The money had come mainly from Chinese and Hong Kong based companies with top […]