Tag: Finance

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2008 (AFP) – The economic team of US president-elect Barack Obama came into view Friday as fears mounted on the global financial crisis and more mass job cuts loomed worldwide.Reports said Obama was set to appoint New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner as his Treasury secretary to take charge of fixing […]

Nov 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has a chance to attract industries from advanced nations in the wake of current turmoil if the country can put its house in order with a longer term view and create a strong base for industry, an economist has said. To receive instant alerts from LBO on your […]

Nov 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has plans to borrow abroad next year at commercial rates to repay maturing loans and keep its infrastructure projects on track. While raising new money is difficult, ongoing global turmoil is tempering commodity prices, helping price stability. ETV’s Lanka Business Report programme discussed the challenges facing Sri Lanka […]

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2008 (AFP) – US consumer prices plunged a record 1.0 percent in October amid an accelerating global financial crisis, government data showed Wednesday. The one-month decline in the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) was the steepest since the department began publishing seasonally adjusted changes in February 1947 and exceeded analysts’ consensus […]

Nov 18, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects could face delays if the island is unable to raise over half a billion dollars though commercial loans amid tough conditions in global financial markets, a top official said. “The government needs external financing of around 500 million dollars in commercial money for financing counterparty funds […]

Nov 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should tap the International Monetary Fund for a stabilization package early as the country is heading for balance of payments trouble and unsustainable budget deficits, a top economist has said. IMF conditions bring fiscal prudence, and tight monetary policy, making it difficult for politicians to coddle loss making […]

Nov 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has cut the reserve money target for the fourth quarter of 2008, amid warnings that its monetary program has been severely de-stabilized by currency intervention and liquidity injections. The Central Bank said the fourth quarter reserve money target has been cut to 285 billion rupees, from […]

Nov 13, 2008 (LBO) – The World Bank said one of the aims of its new aid programme for Sri Lanka was to help achieve ethnic harmony through bilingual education and mixed schooling of the island’s two main communities. World Bank country director Naoko Ishii said the new country assistance strategy was designed to be […]

Nov 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has been ranked near the bottom of a new global ranking on paying taxes, making it one of the most difficult countries for business to pay their dues.Among the key findings of the study are that economies that rank highly on the ease of paying taxes tend to […]

PARIS, November 12, 2008 (AFP) – Key stages in the worldwide financial crisis, which is to be discussed at a summit in Washington on Saturday: – February 2007: First signs of strain in the US market for “subprime” property loans, granted to people who in many cases have no real prospect of paying them back. […]

Nov 11, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government has announced the dates on which new taxes imposed in the government budget for 2009 will become effective.The budget proposed to double the annual maximum ESC liability to 120 million rupees and also made big changes in income tax, widening the personal income tax slabs and […]

Nov 10, 2008 (LBO) – Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are most at risk of a credit downgrade in Asia by the rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P), amid global economic turmoil, a media report said. The island has been hit by withdrawing foreign hot money brought into bridge fiscal deficits. Okorotchenko was quote as […]