Tag: economy

September 28, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy expanded 7.2 percent for the second quarter of this year, on the back of good rainfall and higher export volumes, the Census and Statistics Dept said Thursday. Economic growth during the same period last year was 6.0 percent, the statement said. Good rainfall helped agriculture sector to […]

September 27, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is not doing enough to communicate reforms to the masses, making it difficult for investors to do business here, the World Bank said Wednesday. “Our studies have shown that countries that embrace reforms, reduces taxes, brings businesses and workers into the formal sector. People benefit from jobs, pension […]

NEW YORK, Sept 20, 2006 (AFP) – Eleven developing economies clubbed together Wednesday to unveil a new forum aimed at easing their debt burden, narrowing the income gap with rich countries and lifting millions of people out of poverty. Jordan’s King Abdullah II unveiled the Group of 11 (G11) mostly lower-middle income countries on the […]

SINGAPORE, September 20, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is leading a South Asia initiative to study the impact of oil prices and its effects on macro economic policies, Bangladesh’s Central Bank governor said. Finance misters of the South Asian Association for Regional Corporation (SAARC) – an eight member regional grouping – who met on the […]

SINGAPORE, Sept 20, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has shown economic resilience but needs to end violence to restore much-needed business confidence, the World Bank and IMF said Wednesday. The South Asian nation forecasts a blistering 8.0 percent growth this year, the biggest in nearly three decades, despite soaring violence that has claimed more than […]

Sept 19 (LBO) – The controversy over the sudden recall of police investigators probing the GoldQuest scheme took a new turn, with the authorities denying that the move would affect an ongoing anti-pyramiding drive. The withdrawal of the police investigators from the bank’s unit investigating pyramid schemes will not affect ongoing investigations, the Central Bank […]

SINGAPORE, September 18, 2006 (LBO) – The World Bank rapped politically hungry governments saying short sighted policies fail to uplift the poor, keeping them at the ‘bottom end of the pyramid’. It’s a bad cycle. When projects are scaled up, they bump against the governments which failed their people in the first place, which is […]

SINGAPORE, September 18, 2006 (LBO) – Civil society groups Sunday slammed IMFs plan to overhaul its governance structure, saying they mean very little to poor countries. The Washington based Fund’s policymakers backed the 61-year old International Monetary Fund’s reform agenda today, giving more voting power or influence to fast growing economies of China, Turkey, South […]

SINGAPORE, September 18, 2006 (LBO) – World Bank’s policy body Monday asked the bank’s president not to lose sight of reducing poverty, as the global lender ups the tempo to curb corruption and promote good governance through lending programs. We strongly endorse the Bank’s role and mission is to eradicate poverty among middle income and […]

SINGAPORE, September 18, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was one of the 23 countries that opposed a plan to overhaul the voting shares of the International Monetary Fund. Voting rights or access to funds are determined on member’s economic growth, openness to trade, the amount of reserves they hold and the volatility of each economy. […]

PUERTO DE LOS CRISTIANOS, Spain, Sept 17, 2006 (AFP) – A second boatload of some 200 clandestine immigrants from Asia has been spotted on its way to the Canary Islands, this time from Guinea Bissau, police said here Saturday. “It’s carrying around 200 Asians and probably left from Bissau,” Agustin Brito Machin, secretary general of […]

SINGAPORE, Sep 17 (LBO) – Though other South Asian nations are doing reasonably well in fighting inflation Sri Lanka’s central bank must be more vigilant and do more to stabilize prices, a senior IMF official said. “The mainstay of monetary policy is to maintain financial stability and low inflation. South Asian economies are doing reasonably […]