Tag: economy

Dec 14, 2008 (LBO) – State-run Sri Lanka Tea Board has spent over 200 million rupees to buy tea, using printed money from the Central Bank, in a Zimbabwe-style inflationary quasi-fiscal move, the latest information reveals. Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said last week that it had bought almost a million kilograms of tea worth […]

Dec 12, 2008 (LBO) – Researchers in Sri Lanka and elsewhere should not be guided by romanticism but approach an issue with an open mind and be prepared to change traditional ideas if their findings suggest otherwise, a top economist has said. Papers from Indian and Pakistani researchers as well as those from Sri Lanka […]

Dec 08, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government Friday won a crucial vote in parliament on its budget for 2009 with a majority of 42 votes, a parliamentary reporter said. To receive instant alerts from LBO on your Dialog mobile type ‘lbo’ and send to 678 The government managed to win 126 votes in favour […]

RIGA, December 4, 2008 (AFP) – The IMF has suggested that Latvia drop the peg linking its national currency with the euro to help solve the country’s deepening economic woes, Finance Minister Atis Slakteris said Thursday, adding that his government disagrees. “There is a group of experts of the International Monetary Fund that thinks that […]

Dec 05, 2008 (LBO) – Despite printing money to subsidize oil and driving inflation sky high, speculating in oil derivatives to keep prices down and getting the entire nation into trouble, Sri Lanka’s politics of petroleum deception is still riding high.When inflation is high the ‘burden’ of government is borne more by the poor and […]

Nov 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank, under fire for advising a state-run petroleum firm to hedge oil imports using derivatives in the belief that it helped the balance of payments, has issued a statement defending its actions. The full statement is reproduced below: Hedging : A Clarification re. the Central Bank’s Role […]

Dec 04, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s controversial ‘core’ inflation index, which the Central Bank says it uses for monetary policy decisions, was at 18.1 percent in November, overtaking the so-called ‘headline’ figure which is at 16.3 percent, the latest data shows.The Central Bank said the headline Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI) fell 16.3 percent […]

WASHINGTON, December 2, 2008 (AFP) – A US recession began in December 2007, a panel of economists charged with the official designation of business cycles said Monday.But the gross domestic product (GDP) data may have been skewed by tax rebates that stimulated consumer spending, according to analysts. The NBER said “we do not identify economic […]

GENEVA, December 2, 2008 (AFP) – Monsoon floods in the north of Sri Lanka have affected more than 370,000 people, with 71,000 being displaced, the United Nations said Tuesday.Tamil Tiger guerrillas, who began their struggle for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972, are currently facing the Sri Lankan army’s biggest ever offensive in the north.“The […]

Nov 30, 2008 (LBO) – Calls for independent management for Sri Lanka’s state-managed Employees Provident Fund are gaining more support, with less than half of respondents to a survey saying returns were “reasonable”, an influential weekly has said.Fifty years after the creation of EPF The Sunday Times newspaper said only 45.95 percent of respondents to […]

Nov 29, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should stop a self-destructive sterilized intervention cycle of the national currency and move to stabilize the economy, to prevent an even more dramatic fall of the currency, an economist has said. Kamikaze Before mid-September when the central bank started a sterilized intervention cycle and started putting pressure on […]

Nov 28, 2008 (LBO) – Consumer inflation in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo fell to 16.3 percent in November from 20.2 percent in October, while prices fell by an absolute 0.7 percent in the 28 days of the month, the government’s statistics office said. The moving average of the index, which is smoothed over two years […]