Economic
Sri Lanka continued to conduct monetary policy in a forward looking manner within an enhanced monetary policy framework aimed at stabilising inflation in mid-single digit levels, while progressing rapidly towards transitioning to full fledged Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT).
The World Bank and Sri Lanka yesterday identified several new areas of development cooperation in addition to World Bank-funded existing projects, including renewable energy, garbage disposal, watershed management, and developing spices for exports, the President’s Media Unit said in a statement.
Leading global payments and technology services provider, Mastercard, bestowed Sri Lanka the honour of becoming the first market in South Asia to be added to its prestigious Priceless Cities program.
The Central Bank over the next few months is planning to reach out to as many as 20 finance companies that have been struggling financially to discuss solutions, including possible mergers, and may even take tough measures on those that have been in financial trouble for a number of years.
විදුලි සංදේශ සේවා සඳහා රජය ලබාදුන් බදු සහන ඉකුත් දෙසැම්බර් මස පළමු වැනිදා සිට ක්රියාත්මක බව විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාව පවසනවා.
Inflation as measured by the year-on-year (YoY) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) increased to 5.4% in January 2020 from 4.8% in December 2019.
Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100)1 increased to 5.4 per cent in January 2020 from 4.8 per cent in December 2019. This was driven by monthly ncrease of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased substantially to a 25-month high of 11.7 per cent in January 2020 from 6.3 per cent in December 2019, while Non-food inflation (Y-o-Y) stood at 2.9 per cent, Central Bank announced.
ශ්රී ලංකාවෙන් ඉන්දියාවට ආනයනය කරන ගම්මිරිස් කි.ග්රෑම් එකක උපරිම සිල්ලර මිල ඩොලර් 2.75 ක් ලෙස සීමාවක් පැනවීම නිසා ඉදිරි අප්රේල් – ජූනි ගම්මිරිස් අස්වනු සමයේදී බරපතල අර්බුදයක් ඇති වන බව ක්ශේ ත්ර යේ විශේෂඥයින් ප්රකිශ කර ඇත.
Leading Sri Lankan conglomerate Renuka Holdings celebrated the beginning of construction for its flagship development the Galle Face Icon with a ground breaking ceremony held on 30 January.
In the long-term, the Sri Lanka Remittances is projected to trend around 750.00 USD Million in 2020, according to econometric models.
Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday said steps had already been taken to create awareness to reduce the coronavirus outbreak among tourism industry stakeholders. Accordingly, the Tourism and Health Ministries are working closely to combat the spread of the coronavirus within all tourist hotspots of the country.
In the wake of startling revelation in forensic audit reports on billions of rupees loss caused to Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Central Bank (CB) is taking measures to prudently manage the funds by restricting its investments in the Colombo stock market.
The Central Bank yesterday joined the stimulus bandwagon, cutting policy rates hot on the heels of tax cuts and a debt relief package from the Government earlier on, as a further support to kick-start the economy.
Warns borrowers may still struggle unless macroeconomic environment improves by year-end
Expects GDP to increase to 3.5% in 2020
Says much loan restructuring has already taken place
Restructured loans grew to 3.6% of gross loans from 1.8% at 2018-end
20 out of the 42 licensed finance companies in Sri Lanka, 20 are presently facing liquidity issues, with some of it at a high level of distress with high percentage of Non Performing Loans.
Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe yesterday urged that boosting exports must be everyone’s priority, as the key agency set an ambitious yet achievable target of $ 18.5 billion this year, up by 15% from 2019. EDB revealed that as per provisional data, last year Sri Lanka’s total merchandise and service exports amounted to $ 16.14 billion up by 1.44% from 2018. The composition was merchandise exports were $ 11.9 billion, up 0.13% and service exports were $ 4.2 billion, up by 5.3% from 2018. EDB originally targeted $ 18.5 billion exports for 2019, and the estimated performance reflects achievement of 87% of the goal.
Exclusive and comprehensive luxury transport solutions provider Transcend Drive, recently partnered with the Cinnamon Future of Tourism Summit (FOT) that was held in Colombo.
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