Tag: Finance

Oct 02, 2010 (LBO) – The skills that enabled Sri Lanka win against Tamil separatists can be used to revive the economy and catch up on growth lost by 30 years of war, an architect of the military campaign said. One of the key weaknesses was lack of manpower to hold areas cleared of Tamil […]

Oct 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ratings can improve if the government uses its political strength to reform the public and economic policy which would allow public debt to come down, Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency has said. Following recent electoral victories the government no longer depended on the support of “minority extremist […]

Oct 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s stocks closed up 2. 1 percent Friday becoming the best performing market in the world, up 110.9 percent so far according to Bloomberg newswires data, beating Mongolia at 109.7 percent. Bangladesh was a distant third at 56.4 percent. Colombo’s benchmark All Share Price Index closed at 7,147, topping […]

September 29, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is seeking foreign help to care for nearly 90,000 women who have been widowed due to the island’s Tamil separatist war which ended last year, a minister said Wednesday. Child Development and Women’s Affairs Minister M. L. A. M. Hizbullah told reporters some 12,000 war widows were below […]

Sept 30, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 5. 8 percent in September from a year earlier, accelerating from 5.0 percent in August, the government’s statistics office said. “What is important here is that we have not only been able to deal with inflation, but we have also been able […]

Sept 27, 2010 (LBO) – A revised program Sri Lanka has signed with the International Monetary Fund is allowing more monetary space for the central bank with responsible fiscal policy continuing to be the key focus. A revised letter of intent given by the government has made a deposit insurance scheme for banks, reducing tax […]

Sept 25, 2010 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund has released 212. 5 million US dollars to Sri Lanka under its 2.5 billion US dollar program, backed reform proposals and suggested that the central bank move away from its quantity targeting monetary framework. “Further improvements in monetary policy formulation will provide useful support for macroeconomic […]

Sept 24, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government plans to introduce a pension scheme for private sector employees soon, Gamini Lokuge, Minister of Labour Relations and Productivity Promotion, said. Lokuge also said the pension payments will be made up to the death of the recipient and their dependents will not be entitled to it. […]

Sept 24, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government may take away more money from the salaries of private sector workers to set up another pension fund, a government minister said, amid concerns about the management of an existing fund. A few years ago an attempt to create a contributed pension fund for state workers was […]

Sept 23, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tax payers are at the mercy of an unfair system with no proper appeal mechanism and aging members of a review board not bothering to turn up for hearings, an expert said. “Some members do not bother to turn up for the hearing of an appeal and delegate […]

Sept 23, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has upgraded its growth forecast to between 7.5 to 8.0 percent for 2010, on a better than expected second quarter economic expansion and stronger credit flows, Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal said. The central bank which cut policy rates for two months in a row held rates in […]

Sept 22, 2010 (LBO) – Moody’s Investors Service said it had given a ‘B1’ sovereign rating for Sri Lanka with a ‘stable’ outlook on the end of a war, low inflation and efforts to contain the budget deficit, despite having high levels of debt. “The stable outlook also considers Sri Lanka’s small size, partial dollarization, […]