Photo courtesy of Longitude 80 The estate sector, a high foreign exchange earner for the country, is undergoing a severe crisis. On one hand, estate workers are underpaid and forced to live...

2014 T Bond Yield Goes Below One Year T Bill Rate In Secondary Market The rupee further strengthened at Friday’s (September 21) trading due to a mix of sluggish import demand and possible foreign investment in the Government Bond market, a source told this newspaper. As a result, the exchange rate (ER) strengthened by 25 ...

Last week’s weekly Treasury (T) Bill auction saw  yields continuing with their upward ascent, with the weighted average yields (WAYs) for 182 and 364 day T Bills rising by seven and four basis points (bps) to 13.02% and 13.27% respectively. However the WAY for the 91 day T Bill stagnated at the 11.36% level, which ...

Jun 21, Colombo: Responding to a statement made by the rating agency Standard & Poor on the country's private sector retirement fund, Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), the Central Bank Wednesday said that there is no conflict of interest as a result of the EPF investing in shares of banks.

The Central Bank has said that the Employees Provident Fund is safe and it is not exposed to any danger. Superintendent of EPF of the Central Bank Kalyani Gunatllake stressed that the propaganda, being spread by certain opposition groups is baseless. Certain political groups in the opposition

the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). Ceylon Grain Elevators PLC, Laugfs Gas PLC ...

May 21, Colombo: The Employees' Provident Fund Department of Sri Lanka's Central Bank today rejected the allegations of fraud involving the retirement fund ,Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) made by an opposition legislator in the parliament recently.

Avurudhu Rupee Commitments Bear on Exporters The exchange rate (ER) held at the Rs. 130 levels to the US dollar ($) at Wednesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s trading as exporters began encashing their $ proceeds to meet their local commitments, a market source told this reporter. “In the event they persisted in holding on to their ...

The Employees Provident Fund gets a profit of 800 million rupees.   The Employees Provident Fund which possessed 71 million shares of conglomerate John Keells Holdings had been sold at 194 rupees per share, bringing a capital gain to the Fund. These shares have been purchased by Malaysia’s Khazana Nasional Berhard, a sovereign wealth Fund. ...

‘A ruler with a depleted treasury eats into the very vitality of the citizens and the country. A ruler, who impoverishes his own people or angers them by unjust exactions will also lose their loyalty Impoverishment, greed and dissatisfaction are engendered among the subjects, when the ruler among other things (i) fails to give what ought ...

Last week there were more stories making the rounds on contemplated decisions made outside the cabinet meeting than decisions made inside. Of course, the usual briefing on cabinet decisions were spelled out, Thursday afternoon. For a regime that still wants to boast it has popular support, comparing itself to an opposition fractured and quarrelling red and green, it is ...

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Sri Lanka’s Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank’s National Long-Term rating at ‘BBB+(lka)’. The “Outlook” Fitch says is Stable. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the bank’s outstanding senior unsecured redeemable debentures at ‘BBB+(lka)’. The ratings reflect HDFC’s demonstrated ability to contain interest rate risk b...

Market’s illiquid state compounded by seasonal demand for money, coupled with the lack of confidence in the establishment that is also driving demand for US dollars ($s) and rates as well, forced Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to hold a reverse repo auction on Friday (December 16) to tide over the situation Overnight (O/n) ...

Srilankamirror - Deputy Finance Minister Geetanjana Gunawardena says that monies in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have been deposited in several private banks. He has told parliament that EPF monies have not been used to buy shares of any private banks. He has noted that monies

Professionals stressed the importance of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country to usher in much needed development and also to help in foreign debt servicing and to take away pressure on interest rates. Former Central Bank of Sri Lanka Director Statistics Dr. (Mrs.) Anila Dias Bandaranaike speaking at a CIMA sponsored budget seminar ...

Debate on the the 2nd complete UPFA budget since the conclusion of the war in 2009 May, is now on both within the parliament and without. Heavy weights both critical and positive about this budget, have access to media. The debate is about urban middle class life and the Western Province economy. Not much is ...

Nov 02, Colombo: Sri Lanka's monetary authority, Central Bank says the retirement fund of the country's workforce, Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) is focused on providing long term growth and advised the millions of stakeholders of the fund not to be misled by 'vituperative and negative

Commonwealth Games’ Bid The ethics of Government of Sri Lanka’s (GoSL’s) decision to request public banks to make a contribution to strengthen GoSL’s bid to hold the Commonwealth Games in Hambantota in 2018 are being questioned by certain quarters. One banker told this reporter that as banks are custodians of depositors’ funds, it’s not right ...

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabral has said that they had no intention of vesting the Employees Provident in another party. He was speaking at the relocation of the EPF Department at a new venue. The Employees Provident Fund Department has been relocated in the Lloyds Building at Sir Baron

Sri Lanka’s Employees Provident Fund’s asset value is expected to reach the Rs. 1 trillion mark during this year, announced the Central Bank. The Bank says as of 31st of August this year the total assets of the EPF have grown up to Rs 976 billion. According to the Central Bank this is an annual

Aug 11, Colombo: The Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) of Sri Lanka has come to an agreement with the Commercial Bank to speed up the fund's services.

More To Exit following UN Report The stock market continued to lose its momentum as predicted in the lead story on these pages in its last week’s edition, compounded by foreigners fleeing the market, made worse by the UN’s negative war report on the island. “There is panic selling by foreigners in the backdrop of ...

Banks’ Profits Up 111% The banking industry achieved a considerably high level of profits in 2010. Profit after tax amounted to Rs. 57.5 billion last year, a 111% growth in comparison to a Rs. 27.2 billion profit in 2009. The significant growth in profitability was mainly attributed to a higher increase in fee-based income, a ...

No Investments With the market throwing up an excess liquidity of more than Rs. 120 billion day, day in day out, and signs being that investments have not picked up, are all favourable indicators for the prevalence of a low interest regime in the economy, a market source told this reporter. The market has no ...

Excess Liquidity, Small Forex Market Excess liquidity coupled with low volumes of foreign exchange traded have been continuing to bug markets here, which a source attributed as being are reflection of the low levels of economic activity taking place in the country. Despite a spike last Friday, the foreign exchange (forex) market has been averaging ...

President Rajapaksa as Minister of Finance presented the first budget in his second term as the Executive President, making proposals giving a major impetus to value addition of local industrial products, to improve export earnings while granting a wide range of concessions, increasing outsourcing facilities in Sri Lanka for foreign business enterprises. Thus the President, ...