Tag: Finance

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2007 fell to 6.2 percent, its lowest ever rate, from 6.8 percent in the same 2006 quarter, continuing the steady declining trend seen in recent years, the Central Bank said. The total number unemployed was estimated as 462,000 for the first […]

July 13, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka announced Friday it would mark the fall of the last Tamil rebel bastion in the east of the island with the launch of an ambitious reconstruction plan. Sri Lanka’s 35-year-old conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives, and over 5,200 people have been killed in fighting in the […]

July 12, 2007 (LBO) – The head of Sri Lanka’s state petroleum utility has called for a national policy on oil hedging for the longer term as international bankers were due to present a fresh proposal on short-term hedging. An accumulation of profits in any import firm would reduce demand in the aggregate economy, resulting […]

July 11, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s top industrialists have expressed concern over the noticeable slowing down of economic growth and delays in legislating protection for local industries under new world trade rules. “Rural development is essential for growth and stability must come mainly from business linkages – not handouts.” Industry needs better access to […]

July 07, 2007 (LBO) – The state was not in a position to control prices of imported goods and price levels can only be stabilized by stopping money printing and limiting government expenses, Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs minister said. Consumer affairs minister Bandula Gunewardene said tight monetary policy by the central bank had already brought […]

July 06, 2007 (LBO) – India has agreed to lift restrictions relating to fabric origins on duty free Sri Lankan apparel exports to the sub-continent market in the latest trade talks between the two neighbours, a senior official said. “Now apparel exporters to India can source their fabric requirements from anywhere,” Manel de Silva, Director-General […]

July 3, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank says its reserve money target for June has been achieved comfortably, even as emerging fiscal signals continued to unsettle market participants. Short term rates have also become volatile this week, reaching towards 40 percent again. The interbank market has become after several weeks of excess liquidity […]

June 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy would still grow by 7.5 percent this year despite first quarter growth sliding to 6.1 percent, the Central Bank has said, while a rising budget deficit pushed interest rates to new highs. Analysts also say a slowdown in reported growth numbers is inevitable partly because of statistical […]

June 29, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation rose 3.2 percent in June, though the 12-month increase in consumer prices fell to 13.0 percent from 13.7 percent, the government’s statistics office said. The seasonally adjusted increase in the Colombo Consumer Prices fell to 17.0 percent from 17.4 percent in May, the Department of Census and […]

June 27, 2007 (LBO) – Areas bordering Sri Lanka’s western province, which is open to the world and has good infrastructure, grew fastest last year with a rapidly advancing service sector, the Central Bank has said. “In contrast, all the other provinces had per capita value added below the country average, ranging between 0.8 in […]

June 26 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is to introduce a prosperity index to track the progress of the island’s provinces which are lagging behind and have high levels of poverty, Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said. It will also set up a results-based monitoring and evaluation system to see how development in […]

June 26, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Tuesday scrapped value added tax on ten key food items in a bid to bring down food prices driven to high levels by money printing to finance the budget deficit last year.Last year the Central Bank printed 38.5 billion rupees to finance a fiscal deficit 8.4 percent of […]