Tag: lbo

Aug 20, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state land sales to private developers must be transparent and all available land must be listed online to boost investor confidence, instead being sold through unsolicited deals, a lawmaker has said. Sri Lanka main opposition United National Party member Harsha de Silva says such deals will harm overall […]

Aug 19, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will budget for a deficit of 6. 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 down from a planned gap of 6.8 percent in 2010, information minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. The government will keep state investments at 6. 0 percent of GDP. The state is planning to bring […]

Aug 19, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s foreign direct investment for the first half of 2011 reached 413 million US dollars putting the country on track for a full year goal of a billion dollars, the Central Bank said. Foreign reserves had reached an all time high of 8,158 million US dollars by August 16. […]

Aug 19, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s policy interests rates are held steady at 7. 00 percent to deposit excess money and 8.50 percent to inject fresh money, though credit growth was higher than expected at 34. 4 percent in July, the central bank said. Credit disbursed to the private sector increased by 34.4 per […]

PARIS, August 17, 2011 (AFP) – The world population will reach seven billion later this year, with increases in the number of people in Africa off-setting birth rate drops elsewhere, according to a new French study published Thursday. “It has increased seven-fold over the last two hundred years, topping seven billion in 2011, and is […]

MUMBAI, August 18, 2011 (AFP) – Gold, at record-breaking levels as global economic worries mount, will see sustained demand from key markets India and China this year despite high prices, the World Gold Council said on Thursday. Global demand for the second quarter to June was 919. 8 tonnes, down 17 percent year-on-year, from 1,107 […]

HAMBANTOTA, August 17, 2011 (AFP) – When the 2004 Asian tsunami hit Sri Lanka, the sleepy fishing region of Hambantota was flattened and 3,000 people perished. Now it is riding a massive wave of construction. Hambantota, the home constituency of President Mahinda Rajapakse, is not only emerging as a commercial and logistics hub of Sri […]

Aug 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has relaxed some exchange controls allowing citizens and foreign residents to engage in a series of forex transactions without seeking permission from the state, improving economic freedoms. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said the new moves would “enhance investor confidence, strengthen the foreign reserves in […]

Aug 16, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cement supplies remain disrupted amid price controls and posturing by rulers and the co-operative sector involved in another controversy, in a repetition of a similar debacle in the poultry sector. The Daily Mirror newspaper said Monday three cement firms have written to Sri Lanka’s consumer affairs agency which […]

SYDNEY, August 14, 2011 (AFP) – World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Sunday that investors had lost confidence in the economic leadership of several key countries, warning global markets were in a “new danger zone” as a result. Zoellick said a convergence of events in the United States and Europe had rattled investors in countries […]