Tag: economy

Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has held policy rates steady in February as inflation accelerated, the budget deficit expanded and excess bank reserves were created through a ‘quantity easing’ exercise as debt was monetized. Central Bank said it was holding its main ‘reverse repo’ policy rate through which money is being injected to […]

Feb 15, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget deficit has hit an estimated 8.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first ten months of the year, despite a recovery in revenues as expenses grew at a faster pace, the latest data showed. Up to October the government was able to borrow domestically without […]

BRUSSELS, February 15, 2010 (AFP) – European Union nations decided Monday to withdraw preferential trade benefits from Sri Lanka due to “significant shortcomings” on human rights issues, the EU Commission announced. Sri Lanka gains about 150 million dollars annually due to preferential tariffs, according to trade estimates. The island’s clothing industry is the main beneficiary, […]

Feb 11, 2010 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund is looking at the direction of fiscal reforms to be set by a budget in April to continue its program in Sri Lanka, an official said ahead of a mission due in the island this month. Sri Lanka went for a program with the IMF in […]

Feb 09, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has wrapped up a 300 million US dollar loan to buy “armaments and dual purpose technology” from Russia during a visit by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a media report said. Russia and China have been the main arms suppliers to Sri Lanka during a 30-year war with Tamil Tiger […]

Feb 08, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will appoint a dredging contractor to bring up three million cubic metres of sea sand to supply the domestic market which is running out of river sand and also for export. Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Company (SLLR & DC), a state agency, holds the sole rights […]

LONDON, February 7, 2010 (AFP) – Britain is to cut the number of visas it hands out to foreign students in a bid to stop people breaking the rules by working illegally, officials said Saturday. The change, which comes after Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a review of the system at the end of last […]

Feb 05, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ‘apparent lack of urgency’ to stop rising inflation and post election spending may put pressure on a deal agreed with the International Monetary Fund, Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency has said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, re-elected with a stronger mandate, had a “unique opportunity” to “implement comprehensive fiscal […]

February 4, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Thursday issued an independence day call for unity and reconciliation after his victory in a bitterly fought election. Rajapakse in an address to the nation said the island’s freedom day assumed great significance as it was the first since the defeat of separatist Tamil […]

SAO PAULO, January 31, 2010 (AFP) – Fears of a speculative asset bubble and moves by China to rein in an overheating economy have taken their toll on Brazil, eroding equity prices and the national currency, the real. The strongest warning for Latin America’s biggest economy, still seen as one of the most attractive of […]

FRANKFURT, (AFP) – European Central Bank policymakers will confront mounting eurozone financial tensions at a meeting Thursday in the face of a brewing crisis brought on by Greece’s spectacular public deficit and debt. That the ECB’s main interest rate will stay unchanged at a record low of one percent is considered a done deal for […]

DAVOS, January 30, 2010 (AFP) – IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Saturday that state debt will become the world’s biggest economic problem and some countries will need seven years to fix their finances. “The fiscal sustainability problem is going to be one of the biggest, maybe the biggest problem for the coming … several years,” […]