Tag: economy

Dec 26, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tsunami recovery efforts were hampered by lack of effective institutions, the International Development Association (IDA), part of the World Bank group said.“Reconstruction needs strong and accountable institutions,” it said in a statement. “Sri Lanka’s tsunami reconstruction was hampered from time to time by the dearth of effective institutions, […]

Dec 24, 2008 (LBO) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, said it is helping streamline business licensing in Sri Lankan’s southern Matara district. The Matara Municipal Council and the IFC are making it easier for small businessmen to get licenses to start businesses, an IFC statement said. It […]

Dec 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has spent 266 million US dollars intervening in foreign exchange markets in November, taking the total over the past three months to over a billion dollars, the latest official data has revealed.But the inter bank market now has domestically generated excess liquidity of around six billion rupees, down […]

De 19, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking for alternative sources of foreign funding, the central bank said, as global financial markets remained in turmoil and risk premiums high despite unprecedented rate cuts by reserve currency central banks.The Central Bank says a major part of speculative capital that came into the government securities market […]

Dec 19, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation is falling faster than expected, the Central Bank said, as a global collapse in commodities washed into the country and the country’s money growth was also kept in check. Sri Lanka’s central bank targets the monetary base, which is expected to influence growth in other monetary aggregates, […]

Dec 18, 2008 (LBO) – Developed countries should not shut out migrant workers at times of economic crisis as they still face labour shortages and workers need to send money home to fight poverty, International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. They should see migrants as part of the solution during economic crises, the IOM said […]

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2008 (AFP) – The Federal Reserve used up its ammunition on monetary policy Tuesday by slashing its base lending rate to virtually zero but pledged further efforts to stimulate credit and revive a moribund economy.The actions by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues put the central bank on track toward the […]

Dec 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic expansion is likely to slow in the last quarter as an external slowdown hits demand for its products, resulting in year-end growth of around 6.0 percent, officials said. In the third quarter the economy expanded by 6.3 percent, the government’s statistics office said, helped by high agricultural […]

Dec 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy expanded 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008 over the same quarter the previous year, and against 7.0 in the second quarter of this year, the governments statistics office said. Services grew by 5.5 percent, industry 5.6 percent and agriculture by 12.4 percent, statistics director Suranjana […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has disputed a sovereign credit downgrade by Standard & Poors to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ saying it done without “proper assessment”. The Central Bank also said some comments in a media statement issued by the rating agency were “factually incorrect, logically untenable and grossly misleading.” The central […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund has praised the robust ‘hard peg’ (currency board) of Hong Kong with the US dollar even as Sri Lanka rupee’s ‘soft peg’ is under severe pressure from central bank liquidity injections. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has maintained a fixed exchange rate system or currency […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said it has downgraded Sri Lanka’s long term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to B from B+ with a stable outlook due to its deteriorating external liquidity position. To receive instant alerts from LBO on your Dialog mobile type ‘lbo’ and send to 678 […]