Tag: Finance

April 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka appears to be on the verge of crushing Tamil Tiger rebels after decades of fighting but its success has blown a hole in the nation’s finances and forced it to seek an IMF bailout. Negotiations are underway with the International Monetary Fund for a 2.4 billion-dollar rescue package […]

April 03, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is ready to be flexible on export earnings criteria in a support package for exporters to help them weather the economic recession, a senior finance ministry official said.S R Attygalle, director-general of fiscal policy of the finance ministry, said the government is ready to be flexible […]

LONDON, April 2, 2009 (AFP) – G20 leaders made major progress in reforming a “failed regulatory system” for global finance which had endangered the world’s prosperity, US President Barack Obama said after their summit Thursday. “We made enormous strides in committing ourselves to comprehensive reform of a failed regulatory system,” he said after a G20 […]

April 03, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee held steady against the US dollar in intra-day trading around 116.00 rupees Friday days after an International Monetary Fund mission wrapped up talks in Colombo, and a bailout expected within weeks. “An IMF mission is back to Washington and continues discussions with the authorities on the […]

April 02, 2009 (LBO) – The migration of skilled professionals remains a major concern for Sri Lanka’s corporate sector, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.Hasitha Wickremasinghe, an economist for the ADB in Sri Lanka, said a recent survey of the corporate sector by the bank had revealed brain drain was continuing unabated. The problem was […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic growth will slow down this year but could revive the next helped by reconstruction activity expected with the end of the war against Tamil Tigers, the Asian Development Bank said.The ADB report said the island economy remained resilient last year, bolstered by strong growth in the agriculture […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Consumer price inflation in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo dropped to 5.3 percent in the 12-months to March 2009 from 7.6 percent in February, with prices dropping for six straight months, the government’s statistics office said. Consumer prices have dropped absolutely from October 2008, when the revised Colombo Consumer Price Index […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should adopt a more flexible exchange rate policy and depreciate the rupee to make exports more competitive and better manage import demand, the Asian Development Bank said.ADB Lead Economist for Sri Lanka Narhari Rao said two issues of concern are the fiscal deficit and the external account in […]

Mar 30, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka rupee closed at 115.20/45 against the greenback, with the country’s reserves running low as talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, stretched to a second week. The Sri Lanka rupee broke the Central Bank’s defended peg level of 114.25 last Thursday. The IMF team […]

Mar 27, 2009 (LBO) – An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Sri Lanka is talking with the government on a stand-by arrangement and but the volume of financing the island requires is yet to be decided, an official said. “We don’t have any date as to the conclusion of those discussions or their likely […]

March 25, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan state enterprises come begging to the Treasury for money to pay staff salaries, instead of making profits and contributing to national development, a senior government minister said.“One of the strange functions as the minister of finance in Sri Lanka is to handout checks at the end of the […]

Mar 24, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s minister of consumer affairs has admitted being fooled by crafty bakers who sell underweight bread and exploit consumers. Consumer affairs minister Bandula Gunawardena called on bakers to stick to a certain standard when making bread. According to an investigation carried out by the consumer affairs authority most of […]