Tag: Finance

June 26, 2012 (LBO) – The United Nations is experiencing a funding shortfall to meet urgent humanitarian relief work across Sri Lanka’s conflict-hit north, with money running low for solid waste, shelter and water. Basic services to Menik Farm are reaching critical levels with the majority of providers approaching the end of their funding in […]

June 25, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget has gone off track in the first quarter of 2012, with current spending far outpacing tax revenues, leaving a yawning revenue deficit for the three months that is bigger than the gap for the whole of last year. Current spending by Sri Lanka’s rulers rose 24.2 percent […]

June 25, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s energy sector is a key area of interest for US companies scouting for investment opportunities after the end of a three decades war, US ambassador to Colombo Patricia Butenis said. “We’ve seen a lot of interest from American energy companies interested in help building oil refineries and developing […]

June 24, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has notched up 2.53 billion US dollars in funding from China, since 2007 and 1,205 billion US dollars already disbursed into roads, power, ports and airports, a finance ministry report said. Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board built its first 300 MegaWatt coal plant with Chinese financing and the […]

June 22, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s banking system is sound and well capitalized officials said, though bad loans have started to pick up slightly as a developing credit bubble was rudely jerked to a halt by the island’s dollar peg. Data published by the Central Bank show that bad loans which peaked at 8. […]

June 21, 2012 (LBO) – A boat believed to have 200 people from Sri Lanka has capsized of Australia’s remote Christmas Island which reports day could become one of the worst refugee disasters in the country. Australia, a country of immigrants has tightened immigration barriers in recent years and followed a controversial policy of detaining […]

June 20, 2012 (LBO) – Growth in Sri Lanka’s real estate sector may slow in the coming months, as rising interest rates and higher construction costs begins to bite, a new report has forecasted. Sri Lanka is in the midst of a post-war property boom, with key real estate drivers centered around the leisure and […]

June 19, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankans give generously to help the poor, the needy, the religious and their old schools, but fight shy on giving to civil society organisations, a preliminary study showed. However, the long-term potential of these practices – and where they may lead – remains an open question, the researchers noted. […]

June 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should be careful about the inflationary effects of liquidity created by large foreign exchange swaps with the Central Bank, an International Monetary Fund official said. Analysts have warned that liquidity created by all central bank purchases for foreign exchange – including outright purchases – would flow out through […]

June 18, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economy expanded by a slower 7.9 percent during the first quarter of this year, from the same period a year earlier, dragged down by a fall in farm output, the national statistics office said. The Indian Ocean Island’s economy has quickened at a rapid pace since Sri Lanka’s […]

June 17, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lankans are suffering due to wrong economic policy actions especially those involving state interventions in markets that are backfiring, a legislator who has earlier raised red flags about the balance of payments has said. Harsha de Silva, an economist who represents Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party said […]

June 16, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is eyeing a new deal with the International Monetary Fund with the end of three year program in July 2012 whose success was marred at its tail end by a new balance of payments crisis triggered by energy price manipulations. The three year 2.5 billion US dollar program […]