Economic

www.arabianindustry.com: Like the UAE, Sri Lanka is located in a central point between East and West and is well positioned to be a transit hub. Of course, transforming into an international hub requires huge amounts of investment in the kind of aviation infrastructure the UAE boasts.

The Government has no intention of seeking funds through the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), as debt servicing has been effectively managed, State Minister of Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Parliament yesterday.

CSE suffers biggest daily drop of 7.6% as investors panic; turnover near Rs. 4 b
Active S&P SL 20 marginally recovers after triggering 2 trading halts but ends near 7% down

Reuters: Shares rose for a third straight session on Friday on the back of gains in financial and industrial stocks, although the index booked its biggest weekly decline in over six months.

The government reiterates the need of a legal framework to regulate unregulated money lending activities so that a better and more effective regulatory environment is created for money lending institutions in the future.

LANKAQR to give opportunity for small vendors to make payments using mobile apps
Countrywide launch on 10 October; onboarding of customers from banks, finance companies and others

In the first eight months of 2020, Sri Lanka’s trade deficit shrank by $ 1 billion to $ 3.8 billion from $ 4.8 billion in 2019, helped by import restrictions and strong export performances since June with the latest numbers of $ 947 million in August helping the decline despite it being a weaker performance than the preceding months, latest data from the Central Bank showed yesterday.

Cabinet has approved a proposal to extend the preferential interest rates for Special Deposit Accounts (SDAs) introduced by the Government to attract foreign exchange and to permit the transfer of their income to local bank accounts.

සම්බා සහ නාඩු සහල් හිඟයක් කෘත්‍රිමව මවාපෑමේ උත්සාහයක් පිළිබඳ අනාවරණය වෙයි. පාරිභෝගිකයන් අපහසුතාවයට ලක් කිරීමට වී ගබඩා කර ඇති ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් මෙලෙස උත්සාහ කරන බව මහා, මධ්‍යම හා සුළු පරිමාණ වී මෝල් හිමියන් ඒකාබද්ධව පවත්වන ලද සාකච්ඡාවක දී හෙළි වී ඇත.

Sri Lanka’s trade unions continuously highlighted the pathetic working conditions of local workers, especially in the large apparel industry in the export manufacture sector that boasts of a major contribution to the country's foreign exchange revenue

In an effort to improve investment, Cabinet has given approval for land to be allocated to 10 companies to invest Rs. 1.14 billion in six industrial zones across the country, which is expected to generate 555 new employment opportunities, a top official said yesterday.

Apparel exporter Brandix Ltd. yesterday issued a statement on the early detection of a COVID-19-positive employee in one of its manufacturing facilities located at Minuwangoda.

Sri Lanka’s economy may contract as much as 6.7 percent in 2020, the World Bank has said as a Coronavirus crisis hit exports, domestic demand and the external sector has also weakened under monetary stimulus.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon yesterday announced the completion of all formalities relating to the private placement of shares with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the receipt of $ 50 million (Rs 9.215 billion) from the latter for 115,197,186 ordinary voting shares in the bank.

THE Palm Oil Industry Association (POIA) has recently met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to present their appeal for a pragmatic solution to the impasse created by non-scientific opposition to the cultivation of oil palm that had led to the ban on further expansion of the crop, placing a Rs. 26 billion investment in jeopardy.

BoardPAC recently commemorated its 8th consecutive year in successful partnership with Maxis, the leading converged solutions company in Malaysia. The partnership enabled BoardPAC to be recognised as the leading provider in board meeting governance automation in Malaysia, helping transform businesses through remote, convenient and secure board meetings.

A career banker who counts over 40 years of professional industry experience, D. P. K. Gunasekera has assumed his duties as the General Manager of Bank of Ceylon with immediate effect.

Sri Lanka’s foreign net capital outflows have reached to a new high of around US$500 million (0.6 percent of GDP) as of early September since mid February, mostly from the domestic treasury securities market, official data revealed. .