Tag: Finance

Aug 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Nations Trust Bank’s ‘A(lka)’ rating has been confirmed with a ‘stable’ outlook by Fitch Ratings, following an 800 million US dollar forex loss, which had resulted in tighter monitoring. But open positions had been created and maintained within the foreign currency banking unit due to lack of independent […]

July 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka would have got bilateral help if the International Monetary Fund did not cough up the cash, but the island now had an opportunity to ride on the endorsement by keeping to its targets, a top Indian official has said. Positive Message Though bilateral partners can pump money they […]

July 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government has not agreed to cut subsidies such as for fertiliser to get a 2.6 billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, media minister Anura Yapa said. “We are committed to reducing budget the deficit to five percent in 2011 which is meant to help promote economic […]

July 31, 2009 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 1.1 percent in July from a year earlier, with the price index moving up 0.4 percent in the month, the government’s statistics office said.In June prices hit a low of 0.9 percent from a year earlier. Prices fell in absolute terms for […]

July 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government will table in parliament all documents related to a 2.6 billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, junior finance minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.The government also intends to make savings on defence spending, which has sharply reduced after security forces defeated the Tamil Tiger separatists in May. […]

July 30, 2009 (LBO) – Telecom firms racing to set up networks in Sri Lanka’s war-torn north and east, are being encouraged to share infrastructure under a new rebuilding plan, a top official said.The masterplan includes making it mandatory for at least three operators to share the cost of installing and running network towers, Telecommunications […]

July 30, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has released the technical memorandum of understanding signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), days after the main economic policy agreement was released.A few decades ago many countries did not release IMF documents as governments were unwilling to defend policies in the documents. IMF programs are drawn up […]

July 30, 2009 (LBO) – An International Monetary Fund publication, the IMF Survey has published an interview with Brian Aitken, who led mission to Sri Lanka that resulted in a 2.6 billion US dollar loan to the island. The full interview is reproduced below: IMF Survey online: Why does Sri Lanka need an IMF-backed program? […]

July 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tobacco Company, which is the monopoly legal producer of cigarettes in the country, said profits grew in the June 2009 quarter, even as volumes fell and the government earned more revenue from taxes. The company, a British American Tobacco unit, said in a stock exchange filing that […]

July 28, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said it expects government revenue collection to improve later this year, despite the downturn in the first few months, through better collection, a new Nation Building Tax and reduced tax holidays.The government is committed to increasing tax revenue by at least two percent of GDP by […]

July 27, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has not released the technical memorandum of understanding between the government and the International Monetary Fund, taking a step back from the level of transparency established earlier.Sri Lanka’s central bank has published a letter of intent (LOI) and a memorandum of economic and financial policies (MEFP) relating to […]

July 27, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s IMF supported budget for 2009 implies a more credible revenue target, maintaining nominal capital expenditure at previous year’s levels in an economy that is inflating less, initial analysis shows.Sri Lanka’s runaway budgets were the underlying reason for the balance of payments crisis last year. IMF said short term […]