Tag: economy

Mar 17, 2010 (LBO) – Getting Sri Lanka a more favourable insurance risk rating involves not just the absence of war but other factors like media freedom and corporate governance, officials and analysts said. Altogether, 48 ‘risk factors’ are covered in Aegis’ rating model which also considers criminal risk like corruption, crime, law enforcement and […]

Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka state workers took away 57 cents as salaries and wages out of every tax rupee paid by the people in 2009, as the government continued to expand a bloated public service amid an economic slump, the latest official data showed. Salaries and pensions of workers climbed to 353 […]

Mar 14, 2010 (LBO) – A decision by the International Monetary Fund to suspend its program to Sri Lanka and a European Union decision to lift trade benefits have found wide support in a newspaper poll. A poll by the business news section of The Sunday Times, an influential weekly, found that 74 percent of […]

Mar 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has lifted taxes and levies on gold imports from to promote jewellery industries in the country, the central bank said. “The removal of all applicable import taxes and other levies on gold imports will reduce the gold prices in the market and contribute to promote gold and jewellery […]

Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to curb excessive state consumption, keep inflation low to encourage private savings, and improve governance to draw foreign capital to promote growth and incomes, a top economist has said. Higher savings were required to increase growth and achieve the targets of replicating the economic success of East […]

Mar 11, 2010 (LBO) – The Export Import Bank of India is giving Sri Lanka 67. 4 million US dollars in top funding in a project which will slash travel times along a coastal railway track, the finance ministry said. Rolling stock maintenance facilities will be built in Alutgama, Galle and Colombo. In 2008 India […]

Mar 11, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will get 22. 5 billion yen in loans (250 million US dollars) from Japan for hydro power, water supply and provincial road development in former war torn areas in the east, a government minister said. JICA will also loan 9,156 million yen (101 million US dollars) for 0rovincial […]

Mar 11, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka tourist arrivals surge 67.7 percent to 57,300 in February 2010 from a year earlier, with steep increases in generating markets in India, UK and Germany, official data showed. Visitors from Singapore rose 112 percent to 829. Sri Lanka has seen a surge of tourist arrivals with the industry […]

BEIJING, March 11, 2010 (AFP) – Chinese consumer prices rose for the fourth straight month in February while new lending slowed sharply, data showed Thursday, adding pressure on Beijing to fulfill its vow to control inflation. Analysts said the jump in prices would not trigger a knee-jerk response from policymakers in the world’s third-largest economy […]

Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has signed up 290 million US dollars in financing from China’s Exim Bank to build an airport in the south of the island and expand railways, the foreign ministry said. The ‘A9’ is the main highway that links the northern Jaffna peninsular with the South. The highway is […]

OTTAWA, March 9, 2010 (AFP) – Canada’s ethnic makeup will greatly change in the next 20 years as the number of non-Europeans or “visible minorities” rises to nearly one-third of the population, a government agency said Tuesday. The number of Chinese Canadians is projected to grow also, to around 3. 0 million. But as Chinese […]

Mar 10, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s high income taxes is making local firms weaker against others in developing countries, while a government living beyond its means is eating up long terms funds available for private investment, analysts said. “I’m a firm believer until this country drops the tax rate to 15 percent or 20 […]