Economic

Headline inflation as measured by the year on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100)1 increased to 6.2 per cent in December 2019 from 4.1 per cent in November 2019, Central Bank announced.

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) now running at around Rs.60 billion in debt due to inefficient and corrupt management headed by Kumrasinghe Sirisena has convened an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to endorse the appointment new chairman.

The Colombo stock market remained bearish as it ended Friday negatively midst foreign selling, though turnover was relatively healthy.

A new long-term marketing plan to boost Sri Lanka Tourism has been finalised for the consideration of the industry and the Government within the next few weeks.

The present government has disbanded Sri Lanka’s National Agency for Public-Private Partnership (NAPPP) operated as a unit of the Ministry of Finance with World Bank assistance.

Four new Non executive Directors have been appointed by the Finace Ministry to the Board of Bank of Ceylon with effect from from 14 January 2020.

The Central Bank notes that out of the six forensic audits initiated, five forensic audits have been completed so far at a cost of Rs.275 million (approximately), contrary to various amounts stated in the media.

Despite the increase in budget deficit, Sri Lanka’s economy will be able to sustain as a result of declining oil prices with the easing of fears of conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

විජය කුමරු ඇතුළු පිරිස ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන විට කුවේණිය කපු කටිමින් සිටි බව ඉතිහාස කතාවේ සඳහන් වුවද මේවනවිට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ රෙදිපිළි නිෂ්පාදනයට අවශ්‍ය නූල් සියල්ල ආනයනය කිරීමට සිදුව තිබේ.

‘ඉතිහාසය පිළිබඳ පවතින අභිමානයෙන් පමණක් සෞභාග්‍ය ළඟාකර ගත නොහැකියි. ලෝකය හමුවේ නිවට නොවන පිටකොන්දක් ඇති ජාතියක් ලෙස නැඟී සිටිය හැක්කේ ආර්ථික අභියෝග ජයගැනීමෙන් පමණයි.’ යනුවෙන් ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා මහතා පැවසීය. ‍ගම්පහ දෙ‍වලපොළ සවුන්ඩ් ඔෆ් ඇන්තූරියම් ආයතනය සහ මහීම ප්ලාන්ට් නර්සරි ආයතනය, සියනෑ කතිකාව සංවිධානය සමඟ ඒකාබද්ධව සංවිධාන කරන ලද අපනයන ඇන්තූරියම් වගාවෙහි නිරත ව්‍යවසායකයන් දිරිමත් කිරීමේ අරමුණින් පැවැත්වූ වැඩසටහනක දී ඒ මහතා එලෙස පැවසීය.

Sri Lanka’s earnings from exports grew marginally by 0.8 per cent (year-on-year) to US dollars 10,939 million during the first eleven months of 2019, Central Bank announced

The Government yesterday granted permission for domestic aviation operators to use the helipad at Galle Face after a lapse of 25 years.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday assured stockbrokers that the Government would prioritise the development of the stock market to improve attracting investment to the country.

What is tipped to be the largest, fully-integrated tyre manufacturing plant in the whole of Southeast Asia is nearing completion. The gates of Rigid Tyres Corporation Private Ltd. are set to open in 2020;a state-of-the-art facility in the developing township of Horana. A monumental moment for the Industry in Sri Lanka as it peaks at international standards, bringing opportunities for employment and encouraging foreign direct investments from across the world.

Transparency Intern-ational Sri Lanka (TISL) yesterday called on the Speaker to disclose to the public and Members of Parliament the contents of the forensic audits of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The reports were to be tabled at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and debated during the previous session of Parliament. However, TISL is concerned by the decision of the Attorney General to advise the Speaker against circulating the report openly amongst MPs.

Moody’s has just become the latest global credit rating agency to extend warnings on Sri Lanka’s current economic status following the rating of country’s outlook negatively by Fitch and standard and poor’s (S&P) recently.

The Inland Revenue Department yesterday estimated the beneficial changes made to the value added tax (VAT) to be Rs. 143 billion and urged the trade and business community to pass it on consumers.

One of the world’s three leading credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor has downgraded Sri Lanka’s credit rating to negative from stable.