Tag: Finance

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2009 (AFP) – A jittery bond market and economic “green shoots” notwithstanding, the Federal Reserve is likely to reaffirm a commitment to keep pumping money into the economy to battle recession, analysts say. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) led by chairman Ben Bernanke is expected at a two-day meeting opening Tuesday […]

TEHRAN, June 21, 2009 (AFP) – Iran accused Britain and the United States on Sunday of meddling in its affairs, amid an international outcry over its crackdown on protests over the results of last week’s presidential election. It hammered home its message by ordering the expulsion of BBC correspondent Jon Leyne just two days after […]

June 20, 2009 (LBO) – An International Monetary Fund loan for Sri Lanka is still not ready for approval for its executive board, an official said, though the country is rapidly emerging from a balance of payments crisis. Declining foreign reserves makes investors jittery and can trigger capital flight, while rising interests can cause banking […]

June 20, 2009 (LBO) – Politicians are responsible for killing the entrepreneur spirit of Sri Lankans by making them believe ‘capitalism’ is evil and poverty is better, a senior minister has said. Deng had originally studied and worked in France where he is said to have learned Marxism. Under his rule, very basic reforms ranging […]

June 18, 2009 (LBO) – the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), regional transaction settlement arrangement that tries aimed at by passing hard currency use, has admitted Maldives at a meeting held in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. The ACU headquartered in Iran is made up of the Bangladesh Bank, Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, Reserve Bank of […]

June 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s industrial sector has lost 96,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2009 with the apparel workers losing 60,000 jobs and construction workers losing 36,000 jobs, according to a government survey. But Fernando said the change was not statistically significant. The latest data includes Sri Lanka’s Eastern province, but […]

June 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sections of Sri Lanka’s bloated public sector are stealing peoples’ money in the same corrupt manner as high profile private sector scams, a senior minister said. “More than 140 state owned institutions are running at losses and have to be supported by the Treasury. Some workers don’t even come to […]

June 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic growth slowed to 1.5 percent in the first quarter of the 2009, against 6.2 in 2008 and 4.3 percent in the December quarter, officials said. Passenger kilometres flown by Sri Lankan Airlines had fallen 25.0 percent, railway passenger kilometres fell 7.7 percent, while in state bus service […]

June 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s growth which plummeted to 1.5 percent in the first quarter may pick up later in 2009 with an agriculture and construction led recovery in former war-torn areas coupled with a global green shoots, officials said. The government defeated Tamil Tiger separatists last month in their last redoubt in […]

June 16, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka cut its main policy discount rate by 50 basis points to 11.00 percent to boost credit and support post war economic recovery, amid muted inflation, the Central Bank said. The defeat of Tamil Tigers last month has raised expectations of post war reconstruction and recovery. “The renewed business […]

June 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national water supply and drainage board (NWS&DB) has given 34 percent of the population pipe-borne water, but it still cannot recover costs, a finance ministry report said. The percentage of population covered by the Water Board’s pipe-borne schemes increased to 34 percent in 2008 from 32 percent in […]

June 15, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state revenues fell 8.2 percent to 144.9 billion rupees in the first quarter of 2009, while rising expenses have ballooned the gap in the current account of the budget to an unprecedented level. In the first two months of 2009 revenues fell 10.6 percent with tax revenues falling […]