Economic

A net outflow of the foreign investment amounting to $ 118 million was recorded from the rupee denominated Government securities market in February, resulting in a cumulative net outflow of $ 99 million during the first two months of 2020.

සෞඛ්‍ය නිර්දේශ හා ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්සේවා බලධාරීන්ගේ මාර්ගෝපදේශයන්ට අනුව කටුනායක ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන් තොටුපල සියළු මෙහෙයුම් කඩිනමින් ආරම්භ කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන බව කාර්මික අපනයන, ආයෝජන ප්‍රවර්ධන, සංචාරක හා ගුවන්සේවා අමාත්‍ය ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග මහතා සදහන් කරයි.

කොළඹ වරායේ නැගෙනහිර බහාලුම් පර්යන්තයේ (East Container Terminal (ECT) පළමු අදියරෙහි මෙහෙයුම් ඉදිරි මාස තුන ඇතුළත ආරම්භ කිරීමට නියමිත බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරිය පවසයි.

Sri Lanka Telecom PLC Group yesterday released its financial results for the three months ending on 31 March 2020 with total revenue for the quarter recorded at Rs. 22.1 billion, which is a 3.8% growth compared to the Rs. 21.3 billion during the same period in 2019.

The apparel industry received a big boost from the US - an order of 200 million face masks with Brandix exporting the first consignment. Special Representative of the President and Head of the Presidential Task Force on Economic Revival and Poverty Eradication Basil Rajapaksa symbolically handed over the first batch of face masks from a production of 200 million face masks for export by Brandix, to US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz.

SriLankan Airlines from today will begin operation of passenger flights to limited destinations such as London, Tokyo, Melbourne and Hong Kong.

Reuters: Stocks rose for the third straight session on Friday, boosted by gains in consumer staples and financial stocks.

Healthy growth in business volumes and an extraordinary contribution from other income, before the slowdown attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, have enabled the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC to make a steady start to 2020, despite the continuing increase in impairment charges quarter-on-quarter.

The Colombo stock market’s struggle amidst the impact of COVID-19 persisted yesterday in a second day of drama, though the fall was dented by a late recovery in buying sentiments.

Reuters: Stocks rose for the third straight session on Friday, boosted by gains in consumer staples and financial stocks.

The Central Bank yesterday announced further extraordinary measures to boost new funding and liquidity to support the private sector and spur demand in the economy impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a telling effect of the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sri Lanka passed April without a single incoming tourist, as per latest data released.

Sri Lanka Tourism is seeing a silver lining as European and high-end Indian travellers have begun to inquire on forward bookings, while the Government is sorting out the COVID-19 protocol to welcome guests from July onwards.

The Government has decided to waive off the annual registration fee of all tourist establishments and individuals listed under the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) for one year as part of relief and support to revive the sector impacted by COVID-19 pandemic,.

කොවිඩ් වෛරසය ව්‍යාප්තිය හමුවේ ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කරගැනීම සඳහා කිසිදු ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමකින් තොරව රටට විදේශ මුදල් රැගෙන ඒමට අවසර ලබාදීම මගින් මුදල් විශුද්ධිකරණය පිළිබඳ අවදානමක් මතුව ඇතැයි ට්‍රාන්ස්පේරන්සි ඉන්ටර්නැෂනල් ආයතනය අනතුරු හඟවයි.

The Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka (VIASL) wants the blanket ban to be lifted and for the Government to consider introducing other restrictions including higher margin on LCs.

The Colombo stock market bounced back yesterday in a convincing fashion gaining by nearly 3% as bargain hunters stepped up buying.

Sri Lanka Tourism yesterday justified the request to increase fees by tour guides from April 2021.