Category: Economy

Oct 11, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s external financing has got diversified out of a traditional Western led donor group but the country was not just depending on China, despite such a perception building up, Treasury secretary P B Jayasundera said. “Although there is a perception that we have only Chinese assistance for development, the […]

Oct 11, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will negotiate with the Asian Development Bank to get 40 million US dollars of additional financing for a water supply project in Sri Lanka’s dry zone, minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. This project on completion will provide safe drinking water to more than 453,000 people living. The project involves […]

Oct 09, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised taxes on alcohol ahead of a budget to be presented in parliament next month, a day after excise taxes on tobacco was raised, the island’s finance ministry has said. Taxes on wine has been raised to 898 rupees a proof litre from 838 rupees, molasses, palmyra, […]

Oct 06, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has raised tobacco taxes from October 06, a notice posted on the island’s customs office showed, to raise extract more money from citizens and cut a budget deficit stemming from unchecked state spending. The tax hike came ahead of a budget for 2013 to be presented in parliament […]

Oct 04, 2012 (LBO) – Iran is heading for hyperinflation with a collapsing Riyal driving up prices above a 50 percent a month threshold, as US led economic sanctions hurt state revenues, a top monetary economist has said. Hanke says the black market and official exchange rates began to diverge after July 2010 when President […]

Oct 04, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s urban agency will be given state land in 15 locations to build high rise apartments for people living in underserved settlements in the capital Colombo, cabinet spokesman minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. The agency has already awarded contracts to build 9,781 housing unit in 11 locations in Colombo which […]

Oct 03, 2012 (LBO) – India has started the second phase of building and repairing 43,000 houses in Sri Lanka’s war ravaged Northern and Eastern provinces under a 270 million US dollar grant aid project targeting 50,000 homes. Each beneficiary would be given 550,000 rupees (230,000 Indian rupees) for a new house in installments and […]

Oct 02, 2012 (LBO) – An interim report on state finances presented to parliament is not responsive to Sri Lanka’s fiscal management responsibility law and lacks key information, a legislator has said. Harsha de Silva, an opposition legislator who is an economist, has told parliament that in Sri Lanka’s mid-year fiscal report covering fiscal operations […]

Oct 02, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state debt has expanded by more than a trillion rupees to 6,161 billion rupees up to July 2012 from 5,133.3 billion rupees in December 2012, as the currency depreciated and foreign borrowings increased. Domestic borrowing had fallen to 53.02 percent from 59.6 percent over the same period. In […]

Oct 01, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has seen a sharp fiscal slippage in July 2012 after two months of improving state finances, as the state ratcheted up current expenditure ahead of the ability of citizens to pay up taxes, official data show. State revenues rose 12.6 percent to 556 billion rupees in the seven […]

Sept 28, 2012 (LBO) – Japan will provide 120 million yen (180 million rupees) through the World Food program to provide meal at school to children in the former war zones in the north of Sri Lanka. “There is much concern about the nutritional needs of the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) especially children in […]

September 27, 2012 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s economic growth forecast for 2012 has been lowered to 6. 8 percent from an earlier7.2 percent, Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabral said He said expected growth in some sectors has been revised up and some down. Sri Lanka is facing an external slowdown which has slowed exports […]