Economic

LONDON (Reuters): Oil prices surged yesterday as concerns over supply disruptions after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions outweighed talks of a coordinated global crude stocks release.

2022 වසරේ 23.02.2022 දක්වා දිවයිනට පැමිණ ඇති මුළු විදේශීය සංචාරකයින් සංඛ්‍යාව 150,000 ඉක්මවා ගිය බව වාර්තා වේ.

නියමිත ණය සීමාව ඉක්මවා ලංකා ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාවට ණය නිකුත් නොකරන ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහබැංකුව විසින් රාජ්‍ය බැංකු වෙත උපදෙස් ලබාදී තිබේ.

Higher duties on 700 non-essential imports; voluntary flexible working hours among suggestions Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has mooted new measures to boost foreign exchange earnings whilst saving scarce reserves and awaiting a positive response from the Government.

රට තුළ පවතින සිමෙන්ති හිඟය අවම කරමින් ඉදිකිරීම් කටයුතු ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට ලංවා සංස්ථා සමාගම කටයුතු කිරීමට පියවර ගෙන ඇති බවට වාර්තා වෙයි.

විදෙස් ණය ලබාගැනීමේදී පවතින රජයන්ට සීමා පැනවිය යුතු බව ආර්ථික විශ්ලේෂකයින් පෙන්වා දෙනවා. නෙත් නිවුස් කළ කරුණු විමසීමකදී කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ආර්ථික විද්‍යා අධ්‍යයන අංශයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය ආචාර්ය ප්‍රියංග දුනුසිංහ පැවසුවේ දැනට පවතින නීති අනුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනුමැතිය ලබාගෙන විදෙස් ණය ලබාගත හැකි බවයි.

Workers remittances have plunged to a new low of $ 259 million in January heralding a challenging start for the new year for the Central Bank which has been executing multiple measures to woo inflows via official channels. The figure of $ 259.2 million in January is down by nearly 62% from a year ago and lowest in 13 years. The previous lowest was $ 261.6 million in November 2009.

The Central Bank yesterday said that the services sector expanded in January contrary to a dip as reported by the Daily FT yesterday.

කොළඹ මහාධිකරණය දුන් නියෝගය

Net credit to the Government had ballooned by Rs. 1.7 trillion or 38% to end 2021 at Rs. 6.28 trillion. In 2020 the figure stood at Rs. 4.55 trillion.

Headline inflation in January had risen to 16.8% as against 14% in the previous month, the Census and Statistics Department (DCS) revealed yesterday.

Warns forex crisis and the resultant import restrictions have pushed many of these businesses to the brink of collapse
Goods for sale, raw materials and basic product availability hampered due to increasing pressure on imports
Accounting for 23% of GDP, retail sector says hugely invested recently for development of Sri Lanka’s retail landscape
Represents 14% of labour market with over 1.1 m people employed
If not resolved, crisis to result in closure of stores, severely impacting livelihood of many directly and indirectly dependent
Urges Govt. to bring about measures to alleviate crisis for industry considering wider economic impact on ecosystem

මහ බැංකු අධිපතිගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක්

Ansell Managing Director and CEO Neil Salmon says SL is a global leadership location with 6,000-strong workforce important part and key contributor to global growth as sales top $ 2 b mark in FY21 with over 20% growth
Lankan talent developing latest and innovative technologies that are widely used at Ansell manufacturing sites globally serving customers in over 100 countries
R&D team in SL is developing first glove containing recycled yarn
Says reliance of Ansell on Sri Lanka is a testimony of capabilities of local young engineers and science graduates
Largest multinational corporation in SL, Ansell investing over $ 10 m for expansion of Clean Room packaging facility to service needs of high growth global pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing industries, another value addition operation for surgical gloves and SL’s single largest solar energy plant with over 7 MW

Investor sentiments at the Colombo stock market remained mixed yesterday with benchmark index down but renewed interest on banking sector stocks propelled the more liquid S&P SL20.

Finance Ministry pledges US $ 56mn for global promotion campaign
Funds to be directed towards campaign by 2Q22
Tourism Min says preliminary work of campaign already completed
Campaign management unit, creative agency and digital agency to be appointed
PR firms scheduled to be selected before end of 1Q22

CB Governor Cabraal tells Bloomberg that steady inflow of forex expected in near future
Hopeful the expected inflows to be non-debt creating
Says current exchange rate a “fair one” that provides opportunities for all stakeholders

Fitch Ratings said yesterday Sri Lankan banks are likely to face continued asset-quality pressure in 2022 as rising macroeconomic stresses stemming from the sovereign credit profile pose a threat to borrowers’ repayment capacity, alongside the conclusion of most relief measures in 2021.