Tag: lankabusinessonline

May 29, 2014 (LBO) – Foreign direct investments into Sri Lanka doubled from a year earlier to 442 million US dollars in the first quarter of 2014, investment promotion minister Lakshman Abeywardena said.This year Sri Lanka is expecting 1.5 billion US dollars Minister Abeywardena said. He said 36 percent of the investments came into tourism, […]

May 29, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lankan firms are experiencing a downturn, despite apparently high gross domestic product growth last year due to weak domestic consumption growth, an economist said.Amal Sanderatne, head of Frontier Research, an economics consultancy said their clients are asking why demand is weak when Sri Lanka registered the second highest economic […]

May 28, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank did not want the rupee to appreciate quickly and had bought dollars heavily in the market to prevent an appreciation and help exporter profits, Deputy Governor, Ananda Silva said.Analysts say a flurry of dollar purchases in excess of inflows then pressure the exchange rate which may […]

May 27, 2014 (LBO) – The Asian Development Bank said it would loan 175 million US dollars to build roads and boost the state university system to generate graduates that more employable.ADB will give 100 million US dollars for Sri Lanka government’s skills sector development program which plans to reduce a mismatch between the competencies […]

May 26, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s balance of payments surplus or the gap between international receipts and payments widened to 828.8 million US dollars, the Central Bank said as weak domestic credit dampened imports. However when credit is weak not all of the inflows are spent, generating excess liquidity in the domestic money markets […]

May 25, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s information technology chamber is has organized a forum on workplace diversity, with a top Microsoft executive and academic to deliver the keynote speech. Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) is hosting the breakfast briefing on Increasing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Contemporary Workforce on Tuesday […]

LONDON, May 24, 2014 (AFP) – French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book on income inequality is flawed by errors in his data, the Financial Times newspaper said Saturday.An investigation by the British broadsheet found there was little evidence in the 43-year-old’s original sources to underpin his argument that an increasing share of total wealth is […]

May 24, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Employee’s Provident Fund is running out of new cash to repay beneficiaries as the private sector population age rapidly but attempts by the state to deny withdrawals at maturity will be resisted, a legislator said.Withdrawals were 48.7 billion rupees in 2012 and 50.2 billion rupees and the cash […]

May 21, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s third 300 MegaWatt coal plant is to begin testing in two months and the second plant has just been handed over to state-run Ceylon Electricity Board by its Chinese contractor after initial test runs.The third plant is expected to begin its reliability test runs from June adding another […]

May 20, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank held policy rates at 6.5 and 8.0 percent with private credit showing positive growth in March, and said a government credit guarantee would be available for gold backed loans.The Central Bank was holding its policy repo rate at which the excess liquidity is withdrawn from the […]

May 19, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was a ‘less indebted’ nation on five out of six measures used by the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to measure foreign indebtedness, the Central Bank said.In ‘Disbursed External Debt Outstanding/Gross National Income’ Sri Lanka was placed moderately indebted (between 30 to […]