Tag: Finance

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has ample space for foreign borrowing under a 20-month International Monetary Fund program, which has set a ceiling of 1,750 million US dollars for new commercial loans, officials said. A US dollar bond issue, sold mostly to domestic buyers with access to foreign exchange, matures this week. “A […]

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s exports fell 18.0 percent to 3.1 billion US dollars and imports 36.7 percent to 4.4 billion US dollars in the 6-months to June, and the trade deficit contracted 59.9 percent to 1.2 billion US dollars, the central bank said.Agricultural exports were down 18.2 percent to 725.3 million US […]

MONTREAL, August 8, 2009 (AFP) – Canada has decided to triple its humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka to assist people displaced by the country’s conflict with Tamil separatists, Canada’s top development minister said Saturday. The move came after Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda spent three days visiting the island nation and will take Canada’s […]

KARACHI, August 8, 2009 (AFP) – Pakistani economists on Saturday said an additional 3.2 billion dollar loan from the IMF would have little impact on the economic problems facing the cash-starved South Asian country.The International Monetary Fund on Friday said it had approved an additional 3.2 billion dollar loan to Pakistan after it asked for […]

August 8, 2009 (LBO) – The current economic crisis has created a debate about the core role of a central bank, a senior Sri Lankan monetary official said, while the practice of central banking itself is under heavy fire in the United States. Some central banks in relatively stable economies now only have one core […]

LONDON, September 5, 2009 (AFP) – The G20 vowed Saturday to maintain emergency measures to fight the world economic crisis, warning it was not over yet, while tensions between Europe and the United States remained over bankers’ bonuses. After a meeting in London preparing for a leaders’ summit later this month, finance ministers said they […]

August 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president brushed aside protests from animal rights activists Wednesday when he formally gifted two baby elephants separated from their mothers to a Buddhist temple.President Mahinda Rajapakse presented the “guardianship” of the two calves to top Buddhist monks at a ceremony in the central town of Kandy, his office […]

VAVUNIYA, August 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday allowed 1,100 people displaced during the recently-ended ethnic conflict with the Tamil Tigers to return home, in the first phase of an ambitious relocation plan. At a colourful ceremony, senior presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse presented gift packs of food to the group and pledged to […]

August 4, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is getting ready to conduct its first nation-wide census, covering all 25 administrative districts for the first time in 30-years following the end of a decades long war, an official said.“The next census will be held in 2011, and we are now preparing for it, and we will […]

August 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has offered an amnesty to tens of thousands of soldiers who deserted the army, a spokesman said Sunday, under reforms following the end of the war with separatist Tamil rebels. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said troops who were absent without leave could report back to their units and be […]

Aug 02, 2009 (LBO) – The Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are running monetary policy consistent with maintaining their currency pegs, and should adopt the Euro rather than give into devaluation calls, a top monetary economist has said. Some US economists including Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini are predicting another wave of defaults […]

Aug 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s investment promotion ministry has set up a help desk to promote investments in the island’s former war zone in the north and east, investment promotion minister Anura Yapa said.The unit will help promote business links between the northern and eastern regions and the rest of the country, he […]