Tag: Finance

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2008 (AFP) – The Federal Reserve used up its ammunition on monetary policy Tuesday by slashing its base lending rate to virtually zero but pledged further efforts to stimulate credit and revive a moribund economy.The actions by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues put the central bank on track toward the […]

Dec 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic expansion is likely to slow in the last quarter as an external slowdown hits demand for its products, resulting in year-end growth of around 6.0 percent, officials said. In the third quarter the economy expanded by 6.3 percent, the government’s statistics office said, helped by high agricultural […]

Dec 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy expanded 6.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008 over the same quarter the previous year, and against 7.0 in the second quarter of this year, the governments statistics office said. Services grew by 5.5 percent, industry 5.6 percent and agriculture by 12.4 percent, statistics director Suranjana […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – The International Monetary Fund has praised the robust ‘hard peg’ (currency board) of Hong Kong with the US dollar even as Sri Lanka rupee’s ‘soft peg’ is under severe pressure from central bank liquidity injections. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has maintained a fixed exchange rate system or currency […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said it has downgraded Sri Lanka’s long term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to B from B+ with a stable outlook due to its deteriorating external liquidity position. To receive instant alerts from LBO on your Dialog mobile type ‘lbo’ and send to 678 […]

Dec 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has disputed a sovereign credit downgrade by Standard & Poors to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ saying it done without “proper assessment”. The Central Bank also said some comments in a media statement issued by the rating agency were “factually incorrect, logically untenable and grossly misleading.” The central […]

Dec 14, 2008 (LBO) – State-run Sri Lanka Tea Board has spent over 200 million rupees to buy tea, using printed money from the Central Bank, in a Zimbabwe-style inflationary quasi-fiscal move, the latest information reveals. Tea Board chairman Lalith Hettiarachchi said last week that it had bought almost a million kilograms of tea worth […]

Dec 12, 2008 (LBO) – Researchers in Sri Lanka and elsewhere should not be guided by romanticism but approach an issue with an open mind and be prepared to change traditional ideas if their findings suggest otherwise, a top economist has said. Papers from Indian and Pakistani researchers as well as those from Sri Lanka […]

Dec 08, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government Friday won a crucial vote in parliament on its budget for 2009 with a majority of 42 votes, a parliamentary reporter said. To receive instant alerts from LBO on your Dialog mobile type ‘lbo’ and send to 678 The government managed to win 126 votes in favour […]

RIGA, December 4, 2008 (AFP) – The IMF has suggested that Latvia drop the peg linking its national currency with the euro to help solve the country’s deepening economic woes, Finance Minister Atis Slakteris said Thursday, adding that his government disagrees. “There is a group of experts of the International Monetary Fund that thinks that […]

Dec 05, 2008 (LBO) – Despite printing money to subsidize oil and driving inflation sky high, speculating in oil derivatives to keep prices down and getting the entire nation into trouble, Sri Lanka’s politics of petroleum deception is still riding high.When inflation is high the ‘burden’ of government is borne more by the poor and […]

Nov 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank, under fire for advising a state-run petroleum firm to hedge oil imports using derivatives in the belief that it helped the balance of payments, has issued a statement defending its actions. The full statement is reproduced below: Hedging : A Clarification re. the Central Bank’s Role […]