Economic

Dialog Axiata PLC yesterday said it has managed to consolidate their year-to-date (YTD) performance with a stable third quarter whilst investing further to grow its business.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) will issue ‘Safe and Secure’ compliance certification next week to over 40 hotels keen to resume operations post-COVID-19.

Reuters: On Friday, shares rose for a fourth straight session to end at their highest level since early January; helped by gains in industrial and financial stocks.

Seamless running of the Colombo Port could be running into a squall, the shipping industry warned yesterday, as operations slowed due to the impact of dozens of State-run Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) employees testing COVID-19 positive, at least 200 others ordered to self-quarantine, and about 35 ships prevented from unloading cargo.

The Central Bank has extended the debt moratorium offered to COVID-hit businesses and individuals by a further six months from October, following the spread of the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

DUBAI (Reuters): Dubai’s Emirates airline is asking some pilots to take a year of unpaid leave as it seeks to cut costs due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sri Lankan privately-owned carrier FitsAir has started a dedicated freighter service to cater to post-COVID air cargo demand.To serve this purpose, FitsAir recently added a P2C A321 and converted it into a freighter and has concluded cargo flights to the Maldives and Dubai. The P2C A321 converted freighter aircraft can carry 20 tons within a five-hour range.

The Central Bank has extended the debt moratorium offered to COVID-hit businesses and individuals by a further six months from October, following the spread of the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Having approved concessionary loans amounting to Rs.178 billion identifying the national importance of revamping the businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Bank has extended Grace Period of 4% Working Capital Loan Scheme from 6 Months to 9 Months.

The Government yesterday via an Extraordinary Gazette set a maximum retail price (MRP) on a kilogram of white sugar.

In a major step, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has launched an action plan to address key areas relating to the process of listing a company on the Colombo Bourse with the objective of enhancing its efficiency thereby better serving the funding requirements of companies belonging to both state and private sectors.

කොවිඩ් වසංගත ​තත්ත්වයත් සමග ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් අසරණව සිටියදී ඔවුන් බැංකු ණය වෙනුවෙන් ඇපයට තිබූ දේපොළ ඇතැම් බැංකු මගින් වෙන්දේසි කිරීමට පියවර ගැනීම බලවත් අසාධාරණයක් බව ව්‍යාපාරික එකතුවකින් සැදුම්ලත් සිටුවර ජයබල සංවිධානායේ ජාතික සංවිධායක සිසිර වික්‍රමසේකර මහතා පවසයි.

Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, announced the launch of 5G roaming that would enable Dialog subscribers to roam on 5G networks while overseas.

Sri Lanka’s foremost conglomerate, John Keells Holdings (JKH), showed resilient performance in second quarter as Group EBITDA excluding Leisure grew by 15% and businesses displayed strong recovery momentum.

Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella yesterday said the Government was tasked with presenting the most challenging budget in the recent history.

Turnover at the Colombo stock market topped the Rs. 5.5 billion mark yesterday as investors continued to savour listed equities on the back of recent gains.

Sentiment surrounding the economy continued to deteriorate in October with only a third of business people consulted for the latest LMD-Nielsen Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey saying that economic conditions are likely to improve in the coming 12 months, declining from 48% in September.

Premier blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) yesterday reported a sharp decline in profit for the second quarter and first half, largely owing to COVID-19’s impact on the Leisure sector, but signalled recovery post re-opening of the country has been faster than anticipated.