Economic

Bank of Ceylon has received Rs. 28.5 billion worth of applications seeking concessionary financial support to tide over COVID-19 difficulties under the Central Bank initiated schemes. Of the applications received, Rs. 16 billion worth have been submitted to the Central Bank, of which Rs. 9 billion has been disbursed.

Global shipping giant Maersk has expressed interest in developing the strategic East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo Port in close partnership with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

The Central Bank yesterday denied that it has released any new macroeconomic projections, insisting that it remains true to its expectation that Sri Lanka will grow by 1.5% in 2020 as outlined in the Annual Report, and any adjustments will only be made once first quarter growth numbers are released.

The two-day industrial action by the employees of Colombo Port has sunk Rs. 10 billion of revenue, apart from tarnishing the Port’s hub status, credibility, and reliability, a top official warned yesterday.

කොළඹ වරාය නගරය අසල මුහුද ගොඩකර තවත් නගරයක් ඉදිකරන බව නාගරික සංවර්ධන ජල සම්පාදන සහ නිවාස පහසුකම් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් ආචාර්ය ප්‍රියත් බන්දුවික්‍රම පැවැසුවේය.

All three terminals at the Colombo Port came to a standstill yesterday, suffering over 50% loss of revenue and productivity, after a coalition of 23 trade unions began an indefinite protest urging the Government to hand over the running of the East Colombo Terminal (ECT) to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

The Colombo Stock Exchange has decided to close the market at 12.30 p.m. today (5 August) in view of the Parliamentary Elections.

Several media reports have been brought to the notice of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in which certain macroeconomic projections are erroneously attributed to the CBSL.

Seylan Bank recorded Profits after Tax of Rs. 1,651 Million for the 6 months ended 30th June 2020 against the Rs. 1,523 Million reported in the corresponding period of 2019 despite of challenging market conditions and COVID 19 impact prevailing in the country.

සංචාරක සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ ලියාපදිංචි සංචාරක හා සේවා සපයන ආයතන හා සංචාරක මග පෙන්වන්නන් ලියාපදිංචිය අලුත් කිරීමේ ගාස්තු වසරක කාලයක් සඳහා අය නොකිරීමට තිරණය කෙරේ.

Massive irregularities in the luxury boutique hotel project at Waters Edge, a fully owned subsidiary company of the Urban Development Authority (UDA), have been uncovered by the Special Investigation Unit of the National Audit Office (NAO) recently.

The Central Bank (CB) says that it was pledging US$1 billion worth of US Treasury Securities to obtain a credit facility of $1 billion.

Sri Lanka’s largest private sector bank Commercial Bank celebrates its centenary this year. Its emergence to the top and sustaining that position for several years now has been widely respected within the financial services industry and outside. Tracing what led to its success over 100 years is a daunting task, but the progressiveness of Commercial Bank amidst myriad challenges tells it all.

Sri Lanka’s revenue from income tax has come down significantly during the COVID-19 period, Finance Ministry data showed.

කොරෝනා ව්‍යාප්තියත් සමග වසා දැමුණු කටුනායක බණ්ඩාරණායක ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන් තොටුපොල යළි විවෘත කිරීම දින නියමයක් නොමැතිව කල් දමා තිබෙනවා.

Proving the country’s resilience and rebound amidst the COVID-19 impact, merchandise exports in July have crossed the $ 1 billion mark, an achievement last enjoyed in January this year.

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year (YoY) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100) increased to 4.2% in July 2020 from 3.9% in June 2020, the Central Bank said yesterday.

COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented Rs. 2.4 billion 1Q pre-tax loss at premier blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) which however pointed to signs of a faster than anticipated recovery strong enough to declare an early interim dividend. For the quarter ended 30 June, JKH Group revenue was Rs. 21.60 billion down by 32% from a year earlier.