Tag: economy

August 31, 2007 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo eased 0.8 percent in the month August, with the 12-month inflation at 17.3 percent from 17.6 percent a month ago, the government’s statistics office said. The food category of CCPI index registered 5,177.3 points or 15.2 percent lower in August 2006, compared to […]

August 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s land and condominium price bubble which has now peaked may pop with buildings now under construction expected to flood the market in the next two years and buyers turning cautious, analysts and developers have said. Speculators and foreign investors have been scared off by the flare up in […]

Aug 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan companies have formed a business coalition on HIV/AIDS saying increasing awareness and gearing up workplaces to handle the pandemic helps reduce its financial and economic costs. “HIV affects the most productive segment of the society. We need to promote a coordinated, standardised HIV workplace program approach,” Jaspal Bindra, […]

HARARE, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s government has authorised retailers to raise the prices of basic goods in order to ease widespread shortages which followed the imposition of price cuts, state media reported Wednesday. Shops and businesses which were ordered to slash their prices two months as part of a controversial crackdown on so-called […]

August 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank law, devised by an international economist famed for his monetary prudence, has in-built safeguards to protect the economy unless it was abused, a top central banker said. Central Bank Deputy Governor W A Wijewardene defended the bank’s founder John Exter against a rising tide of criticism […]

August 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit has narrowed 12 percent and oil imports had fallen 8 percent in the first half of 2007, the central bank said. Exports had grown 12.9 percent to 3.56 billion dollars while imports grew only 3.9 percent narrowing the trade deficit from 1.79 billion dollars to 1.58 […]

August 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s forex markets are defying fundamental economic principles with bids creeping above offer prices in what analysts see as the latest in a series of perversions that have hit financial markets in the country. Sri Lank is now floating a 500 million dollar international sovereign bond to ease pressure […]

August 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank sought to calm the country’s forex markets in its August monetary policy statement as the rupee came under increasing pressure and inflation spiked up. The rupee hit a life low Monday moving down to 112.00 to the dollar, despite intervention from official quarters. The central bank […]

August 14, 2007 (LBO) – A Sri Lankan business delegation is to visit the Middle East next month seeking to penetrate the markets in three oil exporting countries whose economies are booming because of high petroleum prices. The visit, organised by the trade fair unit of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), will cover Saudi […]

FRANKFURT, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) – By injecting billions into the money markets in the wake of fears about the US housing market, central banks are reaping what they have sown after years of low interest rates, analysts said Tuesday.IKB’s main shareholder, the German state-owned KfW bank, came to the rescue by providing an 8.1-billion-euro […]

August 13, 2007 (LBO) – If market reforms and globalization that brought prosperity to Sri Lanka’s Western Province could be replicated countrywide, extreme poverty could be eliminated in a generation, a development economist said. Many economists had pointed out that Sri Lanka is held back by policy errors, despite being rich in human, natural resources […]

August 13, 2007 (LBO) – A senior Sri Lankan economist has called for a higher allocation of resources for less developed regions of the island and special perks like higher pay for teachers serving those areas. Nimal Sanderatne, former senior visiting fellow at the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture of the Peradeniya University, said one […]