Tag: economy

Dec 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s official foreign reserves had shot up to 3,226 million dollars in October from following a 500 million dollar sovereign bond issue, allowing the country to record a 475 million dollar surplus for the year, the Central Bank said. In January foreign reserves were 2,526 million US dollars. Total […]

Dec 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit for the first ten months of 2007 narrowed 3.7 percent to 2,846 million US dollars period, though the gap in October widened, the Central Bank said Friday. Total export earnings during January-October 2007 totalled 6,286 million dollars, following a growth of 13.1 per cent from the […]

Dec 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government Friday won a crucial vote in parliament on its 2008 budget, despite a last minute crossover of a cabinet minister, removing uncertainty that had plagued the country for weeks. The turning point was the abstention of the 38 member Marxist-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who voted against […]

Dec 12, 2007 (LBO) – A controversial new inflation index that claims to show lower inflation in Sri Lanka has completely dropped alcohol and tobacco from its market basket, an official statement has revealed. An official statement from the Central Bank’s statistics department said the existing Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) does not accurately represent […]

Dec 12, 2007 (LBO) – Members of a key Sri Lankan minority party crossed over to the opposition Wednesday increasing uncertainty over the fate of the ruling coalition ahead of a crucial budget vote. The other members of the SLMC who crossed over were SLMC General Secretary Hassan Ali, Basheer Sagudawood, and Faisal Kassim, who […]

Dec 11, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has appointed Manohari Ramanathan, an attorney-at-law to fill a vacancy in the governing body on the country’s monetary authority which also sets interest rates. .Updated The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said Ramanathan’s appointment will take effect from December 06, 2007. She had joined the Legal Draftsman’s Department […]

Dec 10, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka could stabilize its economy and rein in galloping prices by moving to an inflation targeting framework and a flexible exchange rate, a top International Monetary Fund official said. Unlike East Asia and some Latin American countries, critics say five decades after creating a central bank with money printing […]

Dec 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation is strongly linked to government credit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report released this week, clearing the private sector of blame for rapidly rising prices. . IMF said bank credit to the private sector has accelerated in Sri Lanka in recent years, but the […]

Dec 06, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee extended gains against the greenback Thursday as panicky exporters sold dollars fearing more ‘carry trade’ style activity from hedge funds, dealers said, after authorities relaxed foreign investor limits on local bonds. Sri Lanka government securities offer attractive rates of around 19.00 percent a year for macro […]

Dec 04, 2007 (LBO) – A new index to measure inflation in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, showed that prices had risen by 19.3 percent in the past 12 months, a tad lower than the 19.6 percent measured by the existing index. The government’s statistics office which computes price indices says the Colombo Consumer Price Index […]

Dec 04, 2007 (LBO) – Recent weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s economy have come from internal policies, and a plan to stop market pricing Diesel and Kerosene in 2008 may destabilize the economy further, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. “Fiscal consolidation, if delivered without delay, would provide scope for private sector-led growth, reduce debt […]

Dec 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government is trying to better spread the benefits of economic growth and reduce income disparities which have widened in recent years, a senior minister said. The government wants to help the private sector to improve its links with farmers in outlying rural communities, Minister of Export Development and […]