Tag: Finance

April 30, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank will continue to maintain tight monetary policy to cope with the current economic turmoil, uncertainty and high prices, a senior official said. “Monetary policy will continue to be tight,” said Ranee Jayamaha, deputy governor of the Central Bank said Wednesday. “The exchange rate and the interest […]

April 30, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has tightened reserve money targets as 12-month inflation hit a new high of 25.0 percent in the capital Colombo on a new index while an older index showed an increase of 29.9 percent in April. The US has increasingly come under fire for firing a global […]

April 28, 2008 (LBO) – A program to conserve Sri Lanka’s mangrove eco-systems is gathering pace with the support of coastal communities, government and private sector organizations, officials said. The Mangroves for the Future (MFF) initiative launched with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is also working […]

April 25, 2008 (LBO) – A blast near a crowded bus station South of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo has left at least 12 dead and more than a 40 injured, police and eyewitnesses said. The explosion went off in the suburb of Piliyandala during the evening rush hour at around 6.45 pm authorities aid. An […]

April 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s private sector credit growth has fallen to 15.8 percent in February from the highs of 25 to 26 percent reach in 2007, but credit to state enterprises should fall further, the Central Bank said. “Although credit to public corporations also declined to 47.5 billion rupees during the month […]

April 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government will give interest subsidies for banks to lend up to 5,000 million rupees to dairy farmers and agricultural processors, the country’s central bank said. “With the sharp increase in the prices of milk powder and food crops in global markets, a favourable environment has been created for […]

April 22, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit doubled in the first two months of the year to 937 million dollars but the overall balance of payments was in surplus by 448 million dollars, the central bank said. In February exports grew 9.7 percent to 642.6 million dollars with tea exports rising 42. 1 […]

April 22, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has lifted price controls on the rice wholesale trade, a top official said, ending a short-lived socialist experiment not seen in the country since the heavy money printing and control era of the 1970’s. Trade ministry secretary R M K Ratnayake said a decision had been made to […]

April 21, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan agriculture and construction workers saw their earnings eroded by high inflation in 2007 for the second year running while public sector workers and the service sector saw real increases, the central bank said. ” . . . as experienced in the previous year, both the agriculture and construction […]

April 21, 2008 (LBO) – An examination of futures prices show that there is no ‘shortage’ of rice, but government meddling in rice production and marketing is causing other negative fallouts, a top economist has said. Steve Hanke, from the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore in the United States, says the term structure of Thai […]

April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Zimbabwe-style price controls on rice have started to disrupt supplies threatening to turn what was simply a steep spike in domestic rice prices into a full blown crisis with actual rice ‘shortages’. . Last July Zimbabwe, a country with a history of money printing and 100,000 percent inflation […]

April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s price controls are temporary, until foreign rice stocks arrive at the end of the month and prices fall towards ceilings imposed by the government, a senior minister said. “Rangoon rice will arrive in Sri Lanka before the end of the month, then prices will fall,” consumer affairs minister […]