Tag: economy

April 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka announced a cracked down on cruelty to bulls at cart races during next week’s New Year celebrations, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s office said Wednesday. Cart rallies are common during Sri Lanka’s traditional two day New Year celebration, which starts on April 13, but animal rights activists say the carriages […]

April 03, 2007 (LBO) – South Asia’s high economic growth has created a new momentum for closer regional integration, which can increase trade and bring greater prosperity to its peoples, the World Bank said ahead of a regional summit that starts today. Praful Patel, World Bank Vice-President for the South Asia region, said there are […]

April 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka central bank says it had met the 17.2 percent money growth number it had set for itself for March, with actual money supply undershooting the target as it attempted to put the lid on runaway inflation in the country. “The actual reserve money as at the end of […]

April 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party poked fun at the government’s economic performance as two agencies produced two sets of national accounts claiming growth rates of 7.4 and 7.7 percent for 2006. “On March 30, the central bank said the economy grew by 7.4 percent,” parliamentarian Kabir Hashim told […]

April 02, 2007 (LBO) – A trade union connected to a Sri Lankan political party whose policy influence expanded the budget deficit and drove inflation to very high levels in the last three years is now calling for a higher minimum wage, reports said. But agitation for salary increments also usually follows high inflation. Updated […]

NEW DELHI, March 31, 2007 (AFP) – South Asian officials Saturday recommended observer status for Iran at next week’s regional summit which will be dominated by trade amid warming ties between rivals India and Pakistan. China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United States already have observer status with the eight-nation South Asian […]

NEW DELHI, April 1, 2007 (AFP) – South Asian leaders meet in New Delhi this week to push for joint action against terrorism and efforts to overcome mistrust dogging the trade ambitions of their bloc of 1.4 billion people. Foreign ministry officials began laying the groundwork on Saturday for the South Asian Association of Regional […]

March 31, 2007 (LBO) – Community-based disaster warning system technologies and their effectiveness were tested in a recent study conducted in 32 villages Sri Lanka’s coastal belt. This project was started after the devastating Asian tsunami that claimed the lives of more than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka. It was funded by the International Development […]

March 30, 2007 (LBO) – Consumer price inflation in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo fell by 1.7 percent in the month of March though the 12-month difference in price levels was still high at 19.5 percent, data from the statistics office showed Friday. Analysts says unions are likely to oppose any attempts to short change them […]

March 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank called for better government budgets to avoid money printing, changes in badly run state firms, more private sector involvement in infrastructure to reduce further build-ups in government debt, in it annual report Friday. Last year the GDP deflator, the broadest measure of inflation at 10.5 percent […]

March 30, 2007 (LBO) – The gap between petrol and diesel prices in Sri Lanka has widened further overnight with a hike of 7 rupees a litre by state owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation with the second player Lanka IOC following suit. The retail prices of a litre of 90-Octane petrol is now 104 rupees, 95-Octane […]

March 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said Friday it had met its targets for first quarter reserve money expansion, a sign that it had the ability to control raging inflation. Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said it had maintained its first quarter target for reserve money growth of 254 billion rupee […]