Tag: economy

Dec 28, 2007(LBO) – Sri Lanka can manage without printing money for next year if the government keeps to the budget deficit of around 7.5 to 8 percent of the domestic product, a senior minister said. The 2008 budget was designed to maintain the deficit at 7.5 percent but if anything unpredictable takes place, expenditure […]

Dec 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank kept its policy rates frozen in December with inflation raging close to 20 percent a month before, but said reserve money targets have been met this year. . Updated The Central Bank’s policy rates remained unchanged at 12.00 percent, far below inflation as the monetary authority […]

GALLE, Sri Lanka, Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Graft and renewed fighting has blocked relief to Sri Lanka’s tsunami survivors with less than a fifth of money pledged properly accounted for three years later, according to watchdogs.Sri Lanka’s government claims success in rebuilding homes destroyed by the disaster, but international agencies say big problems remain. […]

Dec 25, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s monsoon floods were subsiding but just over 40,000 people remained in temporary shelters, the disaster management centre said Tuesday.More than 210,000 people were initially affected by the floods, with 40,225 of them remaining in schools, temples and other public buildings, and receiving food from state agencies, the centre […]

Dec 24, 2007 (LBO) – The World Bank says Sri Lanka needs more money to re-build houses destroyed in the 2004 December tsunami, and its program is lagging behind in the island’s war-ravaged areas. World Bank says its program has helped restore the livelihoods of around 100,000 families and re-build 44,000 damaged houses. “Together, the […]

Dec 24, 2007 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Sri Lanka’s exchange rate appears to be competitive but urged the government not to resist pressure on the rupee and allow it to depreciate. ” . . . greater downward flexibility in the exchange rate is needed to help reduce vulnerability and safeguard […]

Dec 19, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy has expanded 7.0 percent in the third quarter up from 6.4 percent in the second quarter, putting the country on track to clock up 6.7 percent growth in 2007, officials said. However, growth slackened from the 7.7 percent for the same quarter in 2006 with a downturn […]

Dec 19, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan industrialists and leftwing politicians have called for protection as an opening economy that is integrating with the world threatens to give cheaper goods to consumers and put them out of business. However, Commerce Department officials said the opening up of the economy in recent years had given the […]

Dec 18, 2007 (LBO) – Rising temperatures over the next couple of decades will ravage Sri Lanka’s dry zone agriculture and a possible sea level rise will affect the coastal economy a top climate change expert has warned. A temperature rise in the next few years is feared even if big polluters decide to cap […]

Dec 18, 2007 (AFP) – Heavy monsoon showers have driven more than 30,000 people from their homes in eastern Sri Lanka, authorities said Tuesday, and delayed the start of a key cricket match with the visiting England team.Incessant weekend rains made some roads impassable, while rice fields were flooded, the national disaster management centre said. […]

Dec 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has no alternative but to print money because the government cannot move into a framework of limiting expenditure, a senior minister has said. Speaking to the British Broadcasting Service’s Sinhala language Sandeshaya program, consumer affairs minister Bandula Gunewardene said it had become necessary to print money because the […]

Dec 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s country-wide inflation hit a record 24.1 percent in October 2007, following one of the worst bouts of money printing seen since the island’s central bank was created five decades ago. The Sri Lanka Consumer Price Index (SLCPI) devised a decade ago to reflect the modern spending patterns of […]