Category: Economy and Markets
Sri Lanka price controls disrupt rice market: reports
April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Zimbabwe-style price controls on rice have started to disrupt supplies threatening to turn what was simply a steep spike in domestic rice prices into a full blown crisis with actual rice ‘shortages’. . Last July Zimbabwe, a country with a history of money printing and 100,000 percent inflation […]
Sri Lanka rice price controls temporary: minister
April 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s price controls are temporary, until foreign rice stocks arrive at the end of the month and prices fall towards ceilings imposed by the government, a senior minister said. “Rangoon rice will arrive in Sri Lanka before the end of the month, then prices will fall,” consumer affairs minister […]
Sri Lanka Telecom stakes bought by GTH
April 17, 2008 (LBO) “Global Telecommunication Holdings (GTH), a Netherlands incorporated unit through which Malaysia’s UT group is trying to acquire control of Sri Lanka Telecom, has raised its stake in the telco, brokers said Thursday. GTH bought over 6.7 million shares of SLT at 49 rupees per share Thursday, CT Smith Stockbrokers, which bought […]
Sri Lanka govt subsidies fuelling inflation: central bank
April 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has said heavy government spending to subsidise fuel, electricity and fertiliser destabilises the economy, leads to waste and hurts the poor by eventually fuelling inflation. Regular domestic fuel price hikes in keeping with rises in global oil prices are needed, the bank said in its 2007 […]
Sri Lanka Telecom, plantations drive share market higher
April 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s shares closed higher Thursday, driven by a large trade in market heavyweight Sri Lanka Telecom and interest in plantations stocks on anticipation of higher earnings owing to strong commodity prices, brokers said.The All Share price Index ended 24.08 points (0.91 percent) higher at 2,671.83 while the more liquid […]
‘s war, fiscal reversals, policy stance hit sovereign rating: S&P
April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s internal war and a reversal in ‘tentative’ improvements in state finances had made the country less able to weather shocks, putting its credit rating at risk, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s said. The rating agency said debt ratios were above the average for the ‘B+’ rating awarded […]
Sri Lanka central bank decries over staffing of government sector
April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank has criticised the practice of ruling party politicians of stuffing the state sector with their supporters, saying such over staffing is not only wasteful but creates worker shortages in the private sector. It said in its annual report for 2007 that unemployment in the island was […]
Sri Lanka Telecom share price edges up as large stake changes hands
April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Nearly 32 million Sri Lanka Telecom shares changed hands on the Colombo bourse at 49 rupees a share, up 25 cents Wednesday.Brokers said the seller was believed to have been a Sri Lanka-born investor who had bought the stake before the UT bid and was making a sizeable profit within […]
Sri Lanka Telecom share transfer boosts turnover
April 16, 2008 (LBO) – Nearly 32 million Sri Lanka Telecom shares were traded on the Colombo bourse at 49 rupees a share, boosting turnover on an otherwise slack Wednesday, dealers said.The transaction was a foreign-to-foreign transfer to an investment fund, said Danushka Samarasinghe, research manager at Asia Securities, the broking house which did the […]
Sri Lanka plantation stocks draw interest
April 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan stocks edged higher Tuesday with plantations stocks drawing some interest in an otherwise dull market on anticipation of higher earnings from high commodity prices. All Share Price Index went up 10.98 points or 0.42 percent to 2,625.61 while the more liquid Milanka Price Index rose 15.58 points (0.48 […]
” of commodity bubble; what can Sri Lanka do?
April 14, 2008 (LBO) – Countries pegged to the US dollar have felt the ‘full brunt’ of recent increases in commodity prices, a top IMF official said raising questions about the monetary policy options available for Sri Lanka to counter ‘imported’ inflation. Pressure for commodity prices to rise have been building up amid loose US […]
Ron Paul slams Federal Reserve as US money printing de-stabilize world
April 13, 2008 (LBO) – Texas Congressman Ron Paul has slammed the Federal Reserve for printing money to manipulate interest rates and undermining the salaries of workers and savings of older people. Paper money from pure fiat central banking, backed by nothing other than government debt – a process that was born after the gold […]