Economic

Trade Ministry has decided to announce fixed prices for ten essential commodities for six months from February, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardana said.

The overall rate of inflation as measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis increased marginally to 4.2% in December 2020 from 4.1% in November 2020, the Department of Census and Statistics reported.

Sri Lanka’s fishing industry is facing immense challenges as its lifeline – local and export markets – have ground to a near halt due to failure of successive governments to develop the industry.

Government has granted permission to import frozen sliced coconut, to meet the demand of related industries, the Coconut Development Authority (CDA) said on Saturday (Jan. 02).

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka issues an Uncirculated Commemorative coin to mark its 70th Anniversary .

Sri Lanka’s private sector performance has been slowed down to very low level due to the economic downturn in the country as a result of the second COVID-19 wave although the state authorities projected a positive outlook in the 3rd quarter this year and even in the New Year 2021, economic experts disclosed.

අද වන විට සම්බා වී කිලෝවක් රුපියල් 82ක් දක්වා නාඩු වී කිලෝවක් රුපියල් 62 දක්වාත් මිල ඉහළ ගොස් ඇති නිසා සහල් මිල ද ඉහළ දැමීමට සිදුවන බව මරඳගහමුල සහල් වෙළෙඳ ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ සඳහන් කරති.

The contract to construct 3,000 housing units for middle-income families and newly wedded couples was awarded to a group of local contractors recently.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකු අධිපති විසින් 2021 සහ ඉදිරියට මුදල් හා මූල්‍ය අංශ ප්‍රතිපත්ති එළිදැක්වීම 2021 ජනවාරි මස 04 වැනි සඳුදා සිදු කිරීමට නියමිත ව ඇත.

The Government has extended the period of validity of the measures introduced in July to restrict the outflow of foreign currency by a period of another six months effective from 2 January 2021.

Hundreds of renewable power generation companies in Sri Lanka are calling on the Government to gazette its renewable energy target of 70% by 2030 as legally enshrining the goal will help the country fast-track dozens of backlogged projects that could add 1.5 gigawatts (GW) to the national grid, an official said yesterday.

පසුගිය දින කීපය තුල ශ්‍රීලංකා රුපියල අනෙකුත් විදේශ මුදල් ඒකක වලට සාපේක්ෂව විශාල වශයෙන් පහල යාමට පටන් ගැනීමත් සමග රුපියලේ අගය රැක ගැනීම සඳහා ශ්‍රීලංකා මහා බැංකුව විශේෂ ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගනිමින් සිටී. මේ වන විට ඩොලරයක් රුපියල් 188 දක්වාද යුරෝ එකක් රුපියල් 229.85 දක්වාද ස්ටර්ලින් පවුමක් රුපියල් 253 දක්වා ද ඉහල ගොස් තිබේ.

The Government has formulated a National Policy on Natural Gas (NPNG) which will see the establishment of a ‘National Gas Company’ with necessary powers, resources, and operational independence to handle all Government economic transactions relating to the natural gas industry in the country. It will be the Single Credible Creditworthy Entity (SCE) to handle all economic transactions pertaining to Natural Gas on behalf of the Government, either as its own business operations or by entering into Public-Private Partnership (PPP) ventures, a copy of the NPNG seen by the Daily FT says.

The Colombo Stock Market yesterday remained resilient reaching a near three-and-half-year high with above average turnover.

Reuters: Shares ended at a more than three-year high on Monday, helped by gains in industrial and financial stocks.

The Sri Lanka Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (SLCPI) reiterated their commitment towards ensuring the availability of efficacious, safe and good quality medicines to the general public, in the incoming year.

Spectrify AI, a part of VeracityAI Sri Lanka’s fastest going AI company, has announced the launch of a new suite of solutions specifically designed to radically optimize production, agri-inputs, and quality control across the entire value chain for tea, spices and herbs – a first in Sri Lanka.

The Central Bank has approved the amalgamation of Arpico Finance Company PLC (AFC) with the Associated Motor Finance Company PLC (AMF), with the latter being the surviving entity.