Economic

The Port City Colombo will feature prominently at the year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting taking place in Rwanda this week.

First 19 days of June attracts 18,305 tourists, pushing cumulative figure to 396,826
Lowest recorded in three-week period this year from previous measly 21,102 recorded in May
Daily average arrivals further plunged to 963
India tops tourist arrivals with 3,809 followed by UK 1,924 and Australia 1,367

ජුනි මාසය අවසන් වනවිට තමාගේ ධුර කාලය අවසන් වුවද තවදුරටත් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා ලෙස රාජකාරි කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙන් පසුවන බව ආචාර්ය නන්දලාල් වීරසිංහ මහතා පවසනවා. බීබීසී මාධ්‍ය ආයතනය සමග සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කර තිබේ.

Trillium Property Management, a luxury apartment owner, developer, and operator yesterday held the groundbreaking ceremony of its latest 60 upscale duplex (two stories) apartment project with exclusively designed two villas at its strategic location at No. 33, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha, Colombo-5.

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Global port congestion is set to continue until at least early 2023 and keep spot freight rates elevated, logistics executives said, urging charterers to switch to long-term contracts to manage shipping costs.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday met with Members of Parliament to brief them on the current economic situation.

The country’s headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) increased to 45.3% in May 2022 from 33.8% in April 2022.

Korean SPA Packaging Ltd. (KSPA) has recently signed an agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI) with respect to the resumption of the operation at the defunct Embilipitiya Paper Mill, which had discontinued its production since 2012.

Makes key observations and directives during meeting to review Industries Ministry
New Industrial Policy coming up
Steps to relax rules and regulations that hinder industrial development
Govt. keen to shift from trade-dependent economy to a production system

ප්‍රවාහන උද්ධමනය 75% ඉක්මවයි

ලංකා බැංකුව ඉතිහාසයේ වාර්තාගත රුපියල් බිලියන 43 ක බදු පෙර ලාභයක් උපයා තිබෙනවා. ණය ක්‍රම පුළුල් කිරීම හා දීප ව්‍යාප්ත සියලු ස්ථරයන් ආවරණය කෙරෙන ගණුදෙනුකරුවන්ට සමීප සේවාවක් සැපයීමෙන් අදාළ ඉලක්ක සපුරා ගෙන ඇති බවයි අනාවරණ වී ඇත්තේ. ඒ, ලංකා බැංකුවේ 2021 වාර්ෂික වාර්තාව ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා වෙත පිළිගැන්වූ අවස්ථාවේදීයි.

Says industry potential blocked by animal feed shortage and import tariffs
Insists export firms can hike production to 10,000 tons per month whilst earning 10-20 times more
Awaits favourable response from Finance Ministry on request for imported animal feed be considered as a tax rebate after export
Opines lack of local animal feed quantity remains the same for years restricting industry growth
Cites 40% of the SMEs have given up on industry amidst crisis, leading to a 40% drop in eggs production and a 30% dip in chicken output
Warns chicken and egg prices are likely to soar resulting in protein deficiencies among children

A discussion on how the Prevention of Money Laundering Act could be amended was held under the patronage of Justice, Constitutional Reforms and Prison Affairs Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday.

In its June edition, business magazine LMD says there’s “no hope of respite from floating rupees, fiscal storms and wolves at the door”, noting that “the May LMD-NielsenIQ Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey provides some valuable insights”.

ඩොලරය ස්ථාවරවේ

The tourism industry has welcomed the Government’s decision to lift the mandatory COVID-19 insurance to boost the sector, as the world is opening up post-pandemic.

REUTERS: Sri Lankan shares retreated 3% yesterday to record their biggest weekly decline since late April, dragged down by industrials and financials, amid a worsening economic crisis in the country.

The Colombo stock market dipped sharply yesterday over macro concerns though turnover improved.