Trade unions protest
Workers, representing many trade unions, protesting against the government in Matara on Thursday. Pic by Amila Gamage
Colombo owes $100 mln in dues to shipping lines
Ever since banks in Sri Lanka tightened their purse strings, shipping lines are facing a backlog of US$100 million in payments from their agents in Colombo. In this context, it is learnt that shipping lines are looking at the possibility of asking clients to make their payments outside Sri Lanka. Shippers fear that Sri Lankan [...]
CSE breathes fresh air with market recovery
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) made a remarkable recovery from last Wednesday onwards for assorted reasons stemming from the expected resignation of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa to the CSE deciding to display the trading order book on the pre-opening of the stock market after the circuit breakers. Clearly, Mr. Rajapaksa’s decision not to resign did not [...]
Indian credit for food goes to import steel
Despite the guidelines issued for the use of a short term US$1 billion Indian line of credit solely for the procurement of food items and medicines, Sri Lanka is planning to use these funds to import steel from India, reliable official sources said. A sum of $250 million has already been spent from this loan [...]
Japan “drops” buying Ceylon Tea
Sri Lanka is fast losing one of its key buyers; Japan that has dropped purchases by nearly half for this Dimbula season. This comes in the backdrop of a US$52 million loss in earnings the industry made in the first quarter. Japan is a key buyer of teas during the peak Dimbula season but this [...]
Foreign project finance held back
Foreign financing for ongoing mega projects is being held back in the current socio –political instability in the country further straining Sri Lanka’s economy, official sources said. International financial institutions, development agencies and donor countries have suspended release of funds for these projects which are being halted midway. “A lot of foreign funds for development [...]
Looming food crisis
According to the international aid agency Oxfam, about 30 million people are experiencing alarming hunger, severe levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in north-eastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. One in five people — 21 per cent of the population — faced hunger in Africa in 2020, while 282 million people are undernourished in [...]
Remove the “middle-income” tag!
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has recommended to the IMF and the World Bank to tag Sri Lanka with “low-income status”, according to an April 24 report in India’s Business Standard newspaper. In other words, it means that Sri Lanka should be “downgraded” from its current “middle-income status” to low-income status. After all, after Sri [...]
IMF requests SL to implement strict fiscal and monetary policy
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has requested Sri Lanka to implement a strict fiscal and monetary policy protecting the livelihoods of the most vulnerable poorest of the poor people. “Fiscal policy should be devised on a revenue-based consolidation strategy that increases ability of the country to raise revenues and to address most critical spending needs [...]
Govt. schools to be connected with fiber optic technology
All the government schools in the country will be connected with fiber optics soon. “The first project that was developed was a digital identity card with most sophisticated features and this will be issued soon although the cost was heavy. The second project we initiated was connecting and linking rural villages in the country with [...]
Power tariffs could go up by 400 %
While the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is incurring heavy losses due to the prevailing fuel crisis owing to shortage of dollars, it has an outstanding of approximately Rs. 22 billion to settle renewable energy operators. This was pointed out by the Renewable Energy Association of Sri Lanka that includes small hydro, wind, solar, biomass power [...]
Agricultural experts in new think-tank to safeguard industry
Sri Lanka marked one year to the day on Tuesday when the agriculture- dependent nation saw its leaders take the country back by imposing regulations banning all chemical imports, sending it reeling down the path towards rice imports, the staple diet of its people. April 27, 2021 is a day that will be a black [...]
Construction firm Sierra to refurbish legendary John De Silva Theatre
The John De Silva Memorial Theatre, a Colombo landmark built in 1974 as a tribute to the playwright credited with the rise of Sinhala historical drama at the turn of the 20th century, is to be given a new lease of life via a comprehensive refurbishment entrusted to Sierra Construction Ltd. The Department of Cultural [...]
Importers to get prior approval for non-essential items
Governor Central Bank (CB) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe in a speech at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) on Thursday has said that the open account being used for imports will be restricted from Monday meaning that importers will now have to get prior approval from the CB to bring down goods in the future. However [...]
SLIC posts record pre-tax profit of Rs. 11.7 bln in 2021
National insurer Sri Lanka Insurance (SLIC) has reported a strong performance for 2021 with a pre-tax profit of Rs. 11.7 billion and improvement in combined Gross Written Premium (GWP) of Rs. 43.2 billion, growing by 9.7 per cent from the previous year. Notwithstanding the stringent economic and social conditions that prevailed in the country, SLIC’s [...]
Govt. decides to strictly cut state expenses to tackle fiscal crisis
The Government has decided to strictly curb state expenses owing to the grave financial crisis the country’s Treasury was facing, the Finance Ministry announced this week. The Finance Ministry will be taking the crucial public sector and state institutions high unnecessary spending head-on by strictly restricting its expenses through several progressive measures. The Budget 2022 [...]
NDB – Global Finance’s best Sri Lankan bank for 3rd time
National Development Bank PLC was awarded the coveted “Bank of the Year Sri Lanka” title as adjudged by Global Finance USA for 2022 in its 29th edition of awards for the World’s Best Banks. The Global Finance Awards are one of the major awards in the Banking & Financial Services Sector, across the globe. Accordingly, [...]
Prime Group upgraded to [SL] A (Stable) credit rating
Prime Lands (Pvt) Ltd and Prime Lands Residencies PLC have received a rating of [SL] A (Stable) making Prime Group the largest real estate company in Sri Lanka to receive this rating from ICRA Lanka. In its special notification to the Prime Group, ICRA Lanka says, “The Rating Committee of ICRA Lanka Ltd, after due [...]
CB takes action to prohibit remittances from unauthorised channels
The Central Bank is to take immediate action to prohibit inward and outward remittances from unauthorised channels such as Undial and Hawala, directing all those transactions via the local banking system The modalities of the new system will be devised by the Finance Ministry and Import and Export Control Department and the relevant circular and [...]
Five steps to save the economy
Sri Lanka’s misery has deepened by unimaginable proportions over the last few weeks. The country was hit hard in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, and then by its subsequent global shock waves (the war in the Ukraine, world oil prices, and supply chain issues, etc.), thus pummelling the struggling economy into further crisis. With hyper-inflation, [...]
Keshini Subasinghe, new marketing director at Heineken breweries
Keshini Subasinghe has been appointed Director Marketing at HEINEKEN Lanka Ltd, joining a management team members headed by Managing Director Maud Meijboom-van Wel. Ms. Subasinghe joined HEINEKEN Lanka from Unilever Sri Lanka and comes with in-depth experience spanning over 10 years, having managed a diverse portfolio of consumer goods, including some of Sri Lanka’s most [...]
Overseas Realty records nearly Rs.3 bln pre-tax profit for 1Q 2022
Overseas Realty (Ceylon) PLC has recorded a steady growth in revenue and profitability, primarily driven by the Havelock City Residential sales, to record a group revenue of Rs. 7,051 million and a group pre-tax profit of Rs. 2.9 billion for the 1st Quarter ended 31st March 2022. Company revenue of Rs. 527 million at the [...]