Tag: economy

Feb 21, 2013 (LBO) – An index that tracks key essential expenses of urban middle class households in Sri Lanka has found that prices rose more than 20 percent over the past year, about double that of a widely watched official index.The Capital Alliance index will maintain a fixed basket using a Laspeyres formula, named […]

Feb 20, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is losing an advantage it had in basic literacy and the use of English language with other nations catching up fast and information technology literacy becoming increasingly important, a United Nations official said.Sri Lanka had the highest literacy rate in South Asia. “But simply having a literate population […]

Feb 20, 2013 (LBO) – A marketplace created by Sri Lanka’s Etisalat is helping the development and sale of Apps for smart phones based on the Android operating system, and has been recognized in a United Nations report, officials said.The UN Conference on Trade and Development in its information economy report 2012 said Etisalat’s App […]

Feb 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state investment promotion agency said Polish investors met the agency to assess possible investments in power generation and pharmaceuticals manufacture.A delegation from Polska Izba Gospodarcze, the Polish Chamber of Commerce headed by Leszek Lazarczyk of Linter group in Poland had visited Sri Lanka’ the Board of Investment said. […]

Feb 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tax revenues had fallen below target in 2012 amid an economic slowdown, declining imports and tax exemptions, the International Monetary Fund said. The IMF said Sri Lanka’s value added tax (VAT) regime is yielding less taxes than it should at current rates in force. “Strengthening the administration of […]

Feb 14, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is seeking a 200 million US dollar credit from the World Bank to improve the health care system and reduce non-communicable diseases, minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said.The money will be used in programs to reduce malnutrition, prevent and control non-communicable diseases and improve maternal and child care. The program […]

Feb 13, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should freeze policy rates until inflation starts to fall, International Monetary Fund said as the country is going through the highest inflation generated by the central bank in nearly four years.Inflation Risk Sri Lanka should hold policy rates till inflation falls: IMF Feb 13, 2013 (LBO) – Sri […]

Feb 13, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will have to rely on high interest loans from international capital markets and China with the International Monetary Fund refusing budget support, a legislator has said.“What this country now needs is neither budget support nor balance of payments support,” opposition legislator Harsha de Silva said. “What this country […]

Feb 13, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to grow 6.25 percent in 2013 after dipping to 6.0 percent in 2013, with high inflation reducing space for monetary easing, the International Monetary Fund said.“The recovery will be constrained by high inflation which limits room for near term monetary easing,” IMF mission team leader […]

Feb 13, 2013 (LBO) – Two new hospitals built with American and Sri Lankan government involvement in former war zones in the north had been opened on February 12, the US embassy in Colombo said.The Mulankavil base hospital in Kilinochchi and Oddusuddan divisional hospital in Mullaitivu were built at a cost of a million US […]

Feb 12, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has dropped plans for a new ‘budget support’ loan program with the International Monetary Fund, the island’s central bank said as the lender was not willing to give money directly for government spending.Injections into foreign reserves allows a central bank to run less tight monetary policy (sterilize less […]

Feb 12, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank held its main policy rate at which money is injected at 9.5 percent in February after cutting rates in December, while inflation continued to blaze at four year highs above the policy rate. The monetary authority expects inflation to fall after March 2013. Update II Consumer […]