Tag: Finance

July 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s higher education system needs to be revamped with more investment to produce graduates with information technology and English skills, while private providers need regulation, a World Bank study has said.Higher education minister Wiswa Warnapala says expansion of the arts and humanities stream, low quality external degree programs, and […]

July 20, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has signed a formal document setting out an agreed program with International Monetary Fund staff that is now awaiting approval from its top decision making body, a top official said.On Monday 2013 bonds were offered at 12.95/13.00 percent, down 05 basis points from Friday.A 3-year bond maturing in […]

July 18, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has Friday withdrawn seven billion rupees, a part of the money printed to finance a government cash deficit earlier in the week, reducing the risk of triggering another balance of payments crisis. “So long as open market purchases of Government securities are allowed (as, of course, […]

July 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka which taxes imported milk powder at very high levels, has asked importers to bring the price of a one kilogram pack to fall by 37 rupees and 400 gram pack by 15 rupees, official reports said.According to official data a kilogram of imported milk powders was taxed at […]

July 17, 2009 (LBO) – A recent IMF mission to Sri Lanka had “good discussions” with the authorities, but the views of the international community on a loan would still be considered at an executive board meeting, an official said. A ‘staff level’ deal also had to be reached. “Because the first thing that happens […]

July 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is widening the tax net to catch small shop owners and hair dressers to fluff up flagging government income, while excise revenues had also lost it usual buzz, officials said. “Most businesses such as boutiques, hair salons and retailers don’t pay value added tax (VAT),” the head of […]

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2009 (AFP) – The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday it sees an end this year to the brutal recession and hinted that it was preparing an “exit strategy” for its unprecedented stimulus efforts.The central bank raised its outlook for 2009 and 2010 economic output, projecting a rebound in the second half of 2009 […]

July 16, 2009 (LBO) – Developing countries need debt relief to overcome a global economic slump, and a non-aligned emergency bailout fund, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.“The world is today confronted by a crisis that is essentially the creation of the financial markets of certain developed countries,” President Rajapaksa said in the published […]

July 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s interbank excess liquidity rocketed by more than 20 billion rupees this week, with fresh injections of central bank credit to the system in the manner of a quantity easing exercise.Excess liquidity in the banking system increased from 5.4 billion rupees Friday to 26.3 billion rupees Monday, but the […]

July 15, 2009 (LBO) – Inflation of Sri Lanka’s anchor currency, the US dollar, measured by the all urban consumer (CPI-U) index fell 1.4 percent in June from a year earlier, the Bureau of Labour Statistics said. In the month of June, inflation of the Sri Lanka rupee measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index […]

July 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s key reverse repo rate would be held at 11.00 percent while bank lending rates were moving steadily down in response to rate cuts, the Central Bank said in its July monetary policy review. Foreign hedge funds were putting money back into government securities. In May Sri Lanka’s military […]

July 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank, which brought inflation down to 0.9 percent in June, warned of higher inflation raising the possibility that it may lag behind better performing dollar pegged peers in the region. Inflation fell to 0.9 percent in June, the lowest since February 2004, when consumer inflation in Sri […]