Tag: economy

May 07, 2012 (LBO) – Amid pressure from a parliamentary committee for remaining workers of state-enterprises to pay income taxes, finance ministry secretary P B Jayasundera has said all persons must get used to paying taxes. Jayasundera said even a person earning 200,000 a month only paid about 10 percent in tax and the average […]

May 4, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka on Friday raised prices of cooking gas, milk powder and cement, after a weak rupee, tax hike and higher energy prices raised costs. The price of a 12.5 kilo liquefied petroleum gas cylinder goes up by 350 rupees to 2,396 rupees from midnight Friday, Internal Trade Minister Johnston […]

May 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to persist with reducing its budget gap and tighten monetary policy further if needed to ward off balance payments pressure, Fitch Ratings which confirmed a sovereign rating at ‘BB-‘ said. The outlook on the rating was ‘stable’. “The ratings reflect Fitch’s view that the authorities have taken […]

May 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports grew 7. 6 percent from a year earlier to 878 million US dollars in February 2012 with tea exports falling and apparels barely growing, while imports powered ahead, official data showed. In the first two months of the year exports grew only 3. 3 percent to 1.79 […]

May 02, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will keep to a 6. 2 percent of gross domestic budget gap planned for 2012 despite higher than expected interest costs amid monetary tightening, Treasury secretary P B Jayasundera said. “We will strictly adhere to the 6. 2 budget deficit announced in 2012,” he told reporters Monday. “We […]

Apr 30, 2012 – (LBO) – Though the global economy is showing signs of improving, a slowing Europe and debt troubles which Sri Lanka and emerging Asia should watch, an International Monetary Fund official said. European fallouts could hurt emerging Asia through trade and financial channels, IMF’s resident representative Koshy Mathai said, at an economic […]

Apr 30, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India could face credit downgrade if oil prices rise further and energy subsidies are not reduced, Standard and Poor’s said in an Asia-Pacific report. “In India and Sri Lanka, we expect fuel and related subsidies to markedly worsen fiscal and external deficits unless subsidy levels fall,” Standard […]

Apr 30, 2012 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 6. 1 percent from a year earlier, accelerating from 5.1 percent in March, the state statistics office said. The index rose 0.6 percent in the month to 159.8. The food and non-alcoholic beverages component rose 1. 0 percent and non-food items rose […]

Apr 28, 2012 (LBO) – Administrative controls imposed on Sri Lankan banks as part of a package of measures to combat a balance of payments crisis, were not among the preferred measures advocated by the International Monetary Fund, an official said. “Most economists would say a price mechanism is a good way of matching demand,” […]

Apr 27, 2012 (LBO) – On going policy tightening in Sri Lanka and commitment of policy flexibility, will slow growth and may push up inflation but will bring stability to sustain long term growth, an International Monetary Fund official said. “Yes, growth will slow, inflation will rise, cost of living will rise, but the balance […]

April 26, 2012 (LBO) – India’s Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, regional franchise holder for Domino’s Pizza, is investing 300 million rupees in Sri Lanka in 2012, and would spend up to two billion rupees over the next five years to support growth, an official said. “We are extremely bullish on Sri Lanka, the economy has shown […]

Apr 26, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government has agreed to reserve a proportion of construction contracts for local builders in a post-war building boom while banks have also loosened up lending to the sector, an official said. Rohan Karunaratne, president the Ceylon Institute of Builders (COIB), said the construction industry had been lobbying the […]