Tag: Finance

Sept 11, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs minister, cornered by rising prices and a falling rupee caused by money printing, lashed out at a Marxist party that helped engineer a collapse of government finances. Except for a handful of years like 2003, the Sri Lanka rupee has been on a free fall since […]

Sept 07, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is doubling the time given under its labour laws for aggrieved employees to seek redress, rolling a back a previous decision to limit the period, a senior minister said. Minister Anura Yapa said the cabinet of ministers had approved a request by labour minister Athauda Seneviratne to increase […]

Sept 05, 2007 – Sri Lanka’s opposition, including a Marxist party which engineered fuel subsidies and mass state recruitment forcing the government to print money and push inflation up, is now opposing taxes and demanding higher wages. In 2004, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna called for fuel subsidies to remove what it labeled ‘a plug’ to […]

Sep 04, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank said Tuesday reserve money growth is on target, but domestic assets in the monetary base continued to rise, indicating a further weakening of international reserve backing for the local currency. However analysts say Central Bank attempts to stabilize the economy has been undermined by a fiscal […]

Sept 03, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has successfully floated the rupee after printing billions of rupees on an ill-fated intervention and sterilization adventure that nearly brought the national currency to its knees, analysts said. On August 23, the central bank stopped threatening dealers who were earlier labeled as being anti-national and heavy […]

August 31, 2007 (LBO) – Updating laws on gem mining and trade, value addition and better certification methods will help Sri Lanka to develop the country’s gem industry, officials said. Minister of export development and international trade G L Peiris, opening the Facets2007 gem exhibition said the country’s policy structure that addresses the concerns of […]

August 31, 2007 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo eased 0.8 percent in the month August, with the 12-month inflation at 17.3 percent from 17.6 percent a month ago, the government’s statistics office said. The food category of CCPI index registered 5,177.3 points or 15.2 percent lower in August 2006, compared to […]

August 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s land and condominium price bubble which has now peaked may pop with buildings now under construction expected to flood the market in the next two years and buyers turning cautious, analysts and developers have said. Speculators and foreign investors have been scared off by the flare up in […]

Aug 23, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan companies have formed a business coalition on HIV/AIDS saying increasing awareness and gearing up workplaces to handle the pandemic helps reduce its financial and economic costs. “HIV affects the most productive segment of the society. We need to promote a coordinated, standardised HIV workplace program approach,” Jaspal Bindra, […]

HARARE, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s government has authorised retailers to raise the prices of basic goods in order to ease widespread shortages which followed the imposition of price cuts, state media reported Wednesday. Shops and businesses which were ordered to slash their prices two months as part of a controversial crackdown on so-called […]

August 21, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank law, devised by an international economist famed for his monetary prudence, has in-built safeguards to protect the economy unless it was abused, a top central banker said. Central Bank Deputy Governor W A Wijewardene defended the bank’s founder John Exter against a rising tide of criticism […]

August 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s trade deficit has narrowed 12 percent and oil imports had fallen 8 percent in the first half of 2007, the central bank said. Exports had grown 12.9 percent to 3.56 billion dollars while imports grew only 3.9 percent narrowing the trade deficit from 1.79 billion dollars to 1.58 […]