Tag: Finance

Aug 10, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was vulnerable to a drop in global capital inflows having two ‘red indicators’ related to external financing, Fitch Ratings said in a report amid global bond and forex market volatility. Government debt maturities in 2013 as a share of gross domestic product was 16.8 percent for Sri Lanka, […]

July 10, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expecting to maintain a 5.8 percent budget deficit target with better tax revenues on the second half of 2013 and continued moderation of current expenses, Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera said.Sri Lanka’s revenues have been hurt by slowing imports, particularly motor vehicles, but other taxes including value […]

July 10, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has to maintain economic stability free trade, draw more foreign investment and invest in education to boost productivity and sustain high levels of growth, officials said at the start of a policy forum.Ceylon Chamber of Commerce chief Suresh Shah said Sri Lanka had to export more to grow. […]

July 10, 2013 (LBO) – Gold purchases from dealers in Sri Lanka slowed after a 10 percent tax was imposed, despite prices falling further, industry players said.On Tuesday a gold sovereign (about 8.1 grams) the most popular benchmark price was quoted around 40,500 rupees for a 22 carats and 44,000 rupees for a 24 carats, […]

July 09, 2013 (LBO) – Russian investors are looking at Sri Lanka’s fisheries, agriculture and port industries in Trincomalee, a country’s senior envoy had said in Colombo, a business association said.The Sri Lanka – Russia business council of the Ceylon Chamber quoted counselor of Russian Federation, Evgeni Sergienko, as saying at their annual general meeting […]

July 5, 2013 (LBO) – South Asian countries could improve food security by avoiding export restrictions in food and increases in overall trade will also help reduce poverty, a regional policy advocate said.Banning exports of food to neighboring countries and the rest of the world whenever prices go up should be avoided, Bipul Chatterjee, deputy […]

July 03, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has disputed a cut in the outlook to stable from positive on the island’s ‘B1’ sovereign rating saying it is “backward looking” and not a proper reflection of the external position and recent improvements in the economy. Moody’s cut the outlook saying external bank borrowings had […]

July 03, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s finance ministry has revealed budget data conforming to a fiscal responsibility law for the first time in years, opposition legislator Harsha de Silva has said. De Silva had also charged that changes to the fiscal responsibility law to allow the central government to increase the limit on guarantees […]

July 03, 2013 (LBO) – China has given 165.28 million US dollars for projects financed in Sri Lanka in the first four month of 2013, though Japan has committed more new funding in the period, official data show. The World Bank has disbursed 95.7 million US dollars (0.84 million in grants) in the period, coming […]

July 03, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s income tax collection have risen sharply in the first few months of the year, despite a slowing economy after rates were brought down as part of tax reforms in 2011, according to a finance ministry report.The finance ministry said it reflected “a favourable consolidation of the impact of […]

July 02, 2013 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has posted a budget deficit of 3.9 percent of gross domestic product for the first four months of 2013, against a full year target of 5.8 percent of GDP, finance ministry data showed. State revenues for the first four months was 326.6 billion rupees, up from 313.9 billion […]

July 02, 2013 (LBO) – Moody’s Investors Service has cut the outlook on Sri Lanka’s ‘B1’ credit rating to ‘stable’ from ‘positive’ on rising bank foreign debt and continuing budget deficits and high state debt.Related to the debt level was slowing economic growth. After growing 8.1 percent in 2010 and 2011, economic growth had since […]