Economic

The Government let the Central Bank spend the weekend as well as the new working day today with an Acting CEO appointment delaying a permanent announcement.

Recovery of bank loans taken by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises has been suspended (SME) on the directions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who is also the minister of Finance.

Sri Lanka’s economy grew by 2.7% in the third quarter of 2019, recovering somewhat from the Easter Sunday attacks that slashed the previous quarter growth to a five-year low of 1.6%, and showing stronger expansion in the industry and services segment, the Census and Statistics Department said yesterday. In the corresponding quarter of last year, GDP grew by 3.5%.

Sri Lankan SME sector rejoiced the latest initiative by the new government to suspend recovery of loans obtained by them and the action to halt the auction of the small entrepreneurs property kept as surety from auctioning.

The removal of withholding tax levied from the customers of banks as announced by the new government last month will be effective from next month (January) and completed in two phases, Inland Revenue Department (IRD) said yesterday.

Another multi million rupee secret deal of purchasing 200,000 numbers of 4G LTE( Long-Term Evolution) phones from a Chinese company causing a massive loss to Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) on the directions company chairman PG Kumarasinghe Sirisena has been revealed by SLT trade unions.

The government at the last Cabinet meeting has decided to award a series of concessions to tea smallholders and tea factories to bail them out.

2019 තුන්වැනි කාර්තුව සඳහා ජාතික ගිණුම් ඇස්තමේන්තු නිකුත් කිරීම පිළිබඳ නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ 2019 තුන්වැනි කාර්තුව සඳහා දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයේ වර්ධන වේගය 2.7%ක් ලෙස ඇස්තමේන්තු කර ඇති බවයි.

මේ වනවිට ජනතාවට දැරිය නොහැකි මට්ටමකට පැමිණ ඇති එළවලු මිල 2020 ජනවාරි මස මැද භාගය දක්වාම අඩුවනු ඇතැයි අපේක්ෂා කළ නොහැකි බව හෙක්ටර් කොබ්බෑකඩුව ගොවි පර්යේෂණ සහ පුහුණුකිරීමේ මධ්‍යස්ථානය පවසයි.

The Colombo stock market ended yet another week on a negative note despite higher turnover and active foreign buying.

Sri Lanka can leverage its unique location and trade agreements to overcome the dis-economies of its small scale, World Bank announced.

Leading technology platform Zilingo has bolstered its position as a global digital supply chain enabler with its acquisition of Sri Lanka-based software company nCinga Innovations.

Sri Lanka’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.7 per cent in real terms in the third quarter of 2019, recovering somewhat from the Easter Sunday attacks on April 21 2019.

Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Sri Lanka's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Negative from Stable and has affirmed the IDR at 'B'.

Sri Lanka’s manufacturing sector expanded in November 2019 mainly due to the growth in New Orders, Production and Employment, Central Bank announced.

The quest to revive the loss making national carrier SriLankan Airlines commenced week with Aviation Services Minister Prasanna Ranatunga directing officials to draft necessary proposals.

එළවලු මිල ගැන සැලකිල්ලෙන් සිටින ලෙසත් එළවලු වෙනුවට වෙනත් ආදේශක ඇත්නම් ඒවා යොදාගන්නා ලෙසත් අභ්‍යන්තර වෙළඳ හා පාරිභෝගික සුබසාධන රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා මහතා ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

Renowned businessman Ashok Kariyawasam Pathirage has been appointed the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines with immediate effect, Aviation Ministry sources said. . .