Tag: Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka to spend more than 0.5-pct of GDP on north rebuilding in 2010
Sept 24, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expected to spend around 0.75 percent on reconstructing war-torn areas in the north and east in 2010, and it would be outside the program target agreed with the International Monetary Fund, an official said. A 20-month program agreed with the IMF in July 2008, set a target […]
Sri Lanka IMF document suppressed by government decision: official
Sept 23, 2009 (LBO) – Detailed International Monetary Fund documents showing the underlying basis for a stand-by loan to Sri Lanka have not been released by a decision of the island’s government, an official said.A storm has brewing in Sri Lanka over the suppression of IMF documents. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, from the Point Pedro Institute of […]
Sri Lanka under pressure from rights groups over war refugees
September 23, 2009 (AFP) – Human rights groups urged world leaders Wednesday to pressure Sri Lanka over the immediate resettlement of quarter of a million war-displaced civilians held in state-run camps.New York-based Human Rights Watch said the upcoming UN general assembly as well as the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh should address the plight of […]
Sri Lanka lawmakers fiscally clueless: legal activist
Sept 22, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s parliament lacked a permanent fiscal affairs committee paving the way for “mythical” budgets and lawmakers lacked capacity and research to constructively probe public spending and bodies, a legal activist has said. “Take, for example, the parliamentary oversight committee, COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) tasked with dealing with all […]
Sri Lanka economic revival better than expected: IMF
Sept 22, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic revival is better than originally expected when the International Monetary Fund approved a stand by loan, and tax revenues are improving, a review mission said in Colombo. The IMF was originally expecting 3.0 percent growth for the island for 2009 but has revised it up to 3.5 […]
‘s exchange rate gamble likely to be repeated, ask economists
Sept 21 2009 (LBO) – Will Sri Lanka’s latest balance of payments crisis, triggered by an unstable peg be a lesson for the future, or was it a gamble which was barely won but is doomed to be repeated again, economists at a conference in Colombo asked.Sri Lanka tried to defend a dollar peg when […]
Sri Lanka gets UN refugee envoy visit: official
September 21, 2009 (AFP) – The United Nations is sending a top official to Sri Lanka this week to press for the speedy resettlement of 300,000 war-displaced, officials said Monday, the second UN visit in as many weeks.Walter Kalin, the UN Secretary-General’s envoy for refugee rights, will arrive late Wednesday for a five-day visit that […]
Sri Lanka women workers to face brunt of EU GSP loss
Sept 20, 200 (LBO) – Women workers would be hardest hit if the European Union withdraws duty free market access to Sri Lankan exports, given to countries that meet a governance and a rights threshold set by the trade bloc.The potential loss of the GSP Plus duty concession could lead to job losses if Sri […]
UN calls for Sri Lanka probe into rights abuse charges
September 19, 2009 (AFP) – A top UN official issued a strong call for “truth-seeking” into alleged excesses by security forces during the crushing of Tamil rebels as he ended a visit to Sri Lanka, a UN statement said Saturday. The UN has said that up to 7,000 civilians may have perished in the first […]
Sri Lanka to use monetary policy tool mix to target inflation: CB official
Sept 19, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was ready to change intermediate targets or vary its policy tools dynamically to keep inflation low, a senior central banker said, though the final inflation target is as yet somewhat loosely defined.Sri Lanka’s central bank has a loosely defined inflation target of “single digit”.In 2007 and 2008 Sri […]
Sri Lanka pressed by UN to free war-displaced
September 18, 2009 (AFP) – A top UN official was due to wrap up a three-day visit to Sri Lanka on Friday after pressing the authorities to free tens of thousands of war-displaced civilians held in internment camps. UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe is scheduled to meet with President Mahinda Rajapakse […]
Sri Lanka sets January deadline to settle war-displaced
September 18, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse promised the United Nations on Friday that he will resettle all war-displaced civilians by January, his office said. Rajapakse made the pledge during talks with the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs Lynn Pascoe, who is here to follow up on Colombo’s previous pledge to return […]