Tag: Finance

June 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka presented a broad policy budget outlining a commitment to cut deficits over the medium term, bring down interest rates and inflation and also held a state salary hike until next year. Though the gap is high, it is lower than the 9. 9 percent (10.4 percent with grants) […]

June 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s latest budget should ensure the island maintains macro-economic stability that would help accelerate economic growth, the International Monetary Fund representative in the island said. The key element is in ensuring macro-economic conditions remain stable, said Koshy Mathai. “Inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate must remain stable to […]

June 27, 2010 (LBO) – A state agency will import chicken to Sri Lanka a media report said, after government price controls created ‘shortages’ and production costs were pushed up by a policy to keep maize prices high. The Island newspaper quoted D D Wanasinghe, who heads a poultry farmer association as saying that production […]

June 26, 2010 (LBO) – Interest groups backing ‘domestic production’ have urged the state restrict the types of food available for sick people in state hospitals as well as the military, a media report said. The Sunday Island said a group calling itself the Mawbima Lanka Padanama (motherland Lanka foundation) had also urged the state […]

June 24, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government has decided to set up a committee of senior bureaucrats from key ministries to fast-track decisions on private sector investment proposals, a spokesman said. Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the committee of officials is being created to help eliminate bottlenecks in the normal investment approvals process. […]

June 24, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy expanded 7.1 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago helped by strong growth in tea, rubber, export crops and services, the Department of Census and Statistics said. The major reason for this growth was the increase in average […]

June 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has seen steep increase in non-tax incomes in the first quarter of 2010 which accounted for more than half the revenue gains made by the state, official data shows. State revenues increased by 26.3 percent in the first quarter to 182. 7 billion rupees with tax revenues gaining […]

June 18, 2010 (LBO) – A state decision to ‘ban’ tuition classes in Sri Lanka on Sundays will hurt poor families most as richer people will still be able to bring individual private tutors to their homes, an opposition lawmaker has warned. Police have already started to ‘raid’ cheaper mass tuition classes in rural areas […]

June 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan private sector is the engine of growth and the government should embrace the Japanese example and formulate policies that would help people run their economic lives smoothly, a senior official said. “Private sector is the engine of growth and the public sector is the gear box,” Sunil Jayantha […]

June 17, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal has been re-appointed for another six-year term, an official said. He has also kicked off a foreign exchange liberalization drive that will increase the economic freedoms of ordinary people. Cabraal became governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 2006 to complete […]

June 17, 2010 (LBO) – The European Union has allocated 60 million euro (8.4 billion rupees) as aid to Sri Lanka mostly for the island’s north and east which were ravaged by war, a statement said. “The programme will mainly focus on medium-term assistance in the North and East of the country,” the statement from […]

June 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is holding its main policy rate at which money is injected to the economy steady at 9.75 percent with inflation falling and credit to businesses expanding, the Central Bank said. The Central Bank said inflation fell for the third consecutive month, reaching 5.3 percent in May and it […]