Tag: Finance

June 08, 2010 – Sri Lanka’s investment climate must be improved and cost of doing business reduced to attract the private investment needed to speed up growth and improve people’s lives, a senior World Bank official said. Sri Lanka needs to sharply increase private investment in order to accelerate growth, Ernesto May, handling private sector […]

June 06, 2010 (LBO) – A coir factory in a coconut growing northeastern district in Sri Lanka is facing labour problems and a yet another state enterprises is facing financial difficulties, media reports said. The Sunday Times newspaper said a four year old export oriented coir factory with Indian and Israeli collaboration has run into […]

June 05, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is aiming to push its speculative sovereign rating to investment grade by 2013 by fixing government finances, keeping inflation low and growth high, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said. Sri Lanka was downgraded a notch from its original rating as the country went on a deficit spending and […]

June 04, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and India have an opportunity to move towards closer economic ties as the end of a 30-year war opened up new opportunities, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said. “We have a common heritage in trading with each other and the rest of the world,” President Rajapaksa told a […]

June 04, 2010 (LBO) – The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said it has just released its annual publication ‘Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka 2010’ with data on a wide range of economic and social developments. “The vast amount of data included in this publication will be of use for analysing trends in […]

June 04, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Eastern and Northern provinces are ripe for investment in tourism, food processing and finance with infrastructure being built to improve connectivity, officials said. Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces were devastated by a 30-year war which ended last year with the military wiping out the last remnants of […]

June 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has slashed an import excise duty on vehicles by 50 percent amid a pick up in the economy and demand for vehicles, lifted a general 15 percent surcharge on all imports and slashed duties on electronic items, an official said. In Sri Lanka prices of wearing apparel are […]

PARIS, May 30, 2010 (AFP) – As European governments rush to cut budget deficits with draconian austerity measures, experts are warning that the fallout could mean a shutdown in Europe’s tentative economic recovery. The IMF’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, has said there is “a risk… of austerity zeal in some countries under pressure from the […]

May 31, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 5.3 percent in May 2010 from a year earlier, down from 5.8 percent in April, the third straight monthly fall, the government statistics office said. The 12-month moving average, which has been on the rise since March, rose to 3.6 percent from […]

RIGA, May 29, 2010 (AFP) – Decked out in pink, their locks glinting in the sunshine, hundreds of blondes marched arm-in-arm through the Latvian capital Riga Saturday, in a bid to raise spirits in the slump-stricken Baltic state. Tourists and locals marvelled as more than 800 blondes wove their way through the streets for the […]

May 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to contain its fiscal deficit to sustain growth and maintain stability as the country emerges from a 30-year conflict and rebuilds war damaged infrastructure, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said. In 2009, Sri Lanka’s deficit expanded to 9.8 percent of gross domestic product overshooting a 7.0 […]

May 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka foreign exchange reserves rose to 5,192 million US dollars in March 2010 from 5,032 million dollars a month earlier, with imports and remittances also expanding, the Central Bank said. Sri Lanka’s has a pegged exchange rate and foreign remittances as well as net foreign borrowings of the state […]