Economic

Sampath Bank PLC has announced the elevation of Rushanka Silva as Deputy Chairman (Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director) and Deshal De Mel as Senior Independent Director with immediate effect.

‘Sri Lanka Socio Economic Data – 2020,’ the annually published data folder of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, is now available for public information. The current data folder is the 43rd volume of the series.

People’s Bank has made history by becoming the first state bank to accept fingerprints of pensioners for verification purposes, in lieu of conventional life certificate.

Sri Lanka’s newest commercial international airline, Spark Air, plans to take wing from February next year, with the Mattala International Airport serving as its hub. The company, Spark Air Ltd., will initially fly two Airbus A330 aircraft for cargo operations due to the ongoing pandemic, and later expand to passenger operations as the airline passenger situation improves in time to come.

Premier blue chip John Keells Holdings (JKH) is showing greater bullishness on the property sector committing Rs. 9 billion more to consolidate its dominant industry position in Colombo.

Sri Lanka will be importing wheat as a substitute for corn under temporary import licenses to help the poultry industry.

JK Land( Private) Limited ( JK Land) a fully owned subsidiary of JKH, has acquired a further 26.7% equity stake in Vauxhall Land Development ( Private) Limited (VLDL), and existing subsidiary of JK Land, which owns a 9.38- acre plot of prime land on Vauxhall, street, Colombo, from Finlays Colombo Limited (FCL) for a consideration of Rs.5.98 billion on 25 September 2020.

The Sri Lankan rupee will appreciate once the inflow of foreign exchange begins from the SWAP agreements provided to foreigners who invest in government securities, Money and Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Parliament yesterday.

The Colombo stock market yesterday saw mixed sentiments apparently taking a breather after a stellar 10-day gain whilst turnover declined below its recent daily average of Rs. 3 billion plus.

Sri Lanka’s business sentiment continues to move slowly despite the uncertainty triggered by Covid-19 contagion, latest survey revealed.

The Central Bank has issued operating instructions to Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) on the “USD/LKR Buy - Sell Currency SWAPs” for tenors beyond one year and up to two years under the scheme named “Inward Investments SWAPs Scheme (IIS Scheme)”.

Special benefit only if investments are held to maturity; any sale before maturity will incur penalty though enjoying same exchange rate at the time of buying
Minimum investment set at $ 25 m and maximum at $ 1 b
Any exchange loss due to depreciation will be set-off by Central Bank when transferring profits to Treasury
Foreign investments in Government securities were as high as $ 3.4 b in 2014 and by end-2019 they have dwindled to $ 400 m; by end-July figure was $ 69 m
Net foreign outflow of $ 515 m from the rupee-denominated Government securities market in first seven months of 2020; Recent weeks see return of foreign buying

Pelwatte Dairy Industries, Sri Lanka’s leading local dairy producer, is on a renewed mission to meet the domestic milk demand and uplift the socio-economic status of local dairy farmers.

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has removed the Maximum Retail Price of Rs. 750 per kilo that had been placed on turmeric powder.

State Minister of Money and Capital Market and Public Enterprise Reforms Nivard Cabraal

Cabraal tells Parliament foreigners keen to return to SL as local interest drives share market up
Says a lot of excitement about Port City
Country targeting economic growth of 1% by end of the year
Requests banks and leasing companies to give concessions to customers

කේ.ඩී.යූ. ඇඩ්වෙන්චර්ස් (KDU adventures (Pvt) Ltd) සමාගම වීරවිල ප්‍රදේශයේ ඉදි කළ නවතම තරු පහේ හෝටලය වන “Double Tree” - වීරවිල රජවර්ණ රිසෝට් සංචාරකයන්ට විවෘත කිරීමේ අවස්ථාවට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා  (2020.09.24) දින එක් විය.

The winning streak witnessed at the Colombo stock market for over two weeks ended yesterday as investors took a welcome breather and turnover settling at Rs. 2 billion level.

The Central Bank said yesterday the headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) increased marginally to 6.2% in August 2020 from 6.1% in July 2020.