Economic

A day after relaxing import restrictions on tiles and ceramic products, the Government yesterday did a U-turn to suspend the Gazette notification and continue import limits.

Sri Lanka Tourism has given priority for employees of ‘Safe and Secure’ certified accommodation providers and immediate stakeholders such as tour guides and drivers for the vaccination program of COVID-19.

Despite global negativity, the CSE has emerged the best performing stock market in the world as of 19 January due to local positivity. Analysts expect global equity market growth to move away from the US to favour the rest of the world.

The Attorney General (AG) has forwarded indictments against former Directors of Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC and Edirisinghe Trust investment (ETI) Finance ltd. for running a financial business without a license.

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (YOY) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100), decreased to 3% in January from 4.2% in December 2020.

The Government has decided to develop the Colpetty Market into a 40-storey mixed development project with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) and the Urban Development Authority (UDA).

සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල විසින් කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළේ සිදුකර ඇති සමාගම් 6 ක කොටස් ආයෝජන මුළුමනින්ම විකුණා දැමීමට පියවර ගෙන ඇති බව වාර්තාවේ.සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල යනු මෙරට විශාලතම සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදල වේ. ඒ අනුව අරමුදල විසින් ඒසීඑල් ප්ලාස්ටික්ස්, බලංගොඩ වැවිලි සමාගම, කෙමෙනෙක්ස්, එක්ස්පෝලංකා හෝල්ඩිංග්ස් සහ මල්වත්ත වැවිලි සමාගමේ ඡන්ද බලය හිමි හා නිෂ්ඡන්ද කොටස් මෙන්ම සෙලාන් ඩිවලොප්මන්ට්ස් යන ආයෝජනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම 2020 දෙසැම්බර් 31 න් අවසන් කාර්තුව තුළ දී විකුණා දමා ඇති බව වාර්තාවේ.

Dr. Coomaraswamy has over 40 years of experience in policy making and providing economic advisory services, on both macroeconomic and structural issues, at national and intergovernmental levels. Dr. Coomaraswamy served as the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka from July 2016 to December 2019.

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100)1, decreased to 3% in January from 4.2% in December 2020, largely due to the statistical effect of the high base prevailed during January 2020, the Central Bank said in a statement yesterday.

The high-flying and world’s best performing last week Colombo stock market yesterday suffered its worst crash in history with Rs. 245 billion in value wiped off as investors and analysts pinned the blame on regulators whilst profit-taking contributed to the downfall too.

The Board of Investment (BOI), Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) will hold a first-of-its-kind virtual investment forum to collectively promote direct and equity investment opportunities in Sri Lanka from 6-8 April.

The Government is to present five new foreign exchange regulations for Parliament approval to ensure laws cater to the present situation.

Cabinet has approved amending the Industrial Disputes Act to enable disciplinary inquiries to be wrapped up within six months to aid dispute resolution and support the private sector, a top official said yesterday.

With unprecedented level of trading activity, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) have issued new directives to monitor credit exposure undertaken by brokers and dealers.

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts appreciated on Wednesday to close the day at Rs. 192.25/193.00 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 195.50/196.50.

The Government has approved a proposal by the Energy Ministry for the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to restart bunkering services.

The Department of Labour has launched the second phase of its survey on the impact of COVID-19 and beyond on businesses and their employment level as a follow-up to the inaugural exercise done mid-2020.

The Colombo International Container Terminal (C.I.C.T) is the only container terminal currently operating at the Colombo Port that can handle ships over 14.25 meter in depth (Dratf) despite the Failure of East terminal to begin operations port officials said.