LONDON (Reuters): Britain’s budget deficit widened to the biggest on record for any August, data showed on Friday, a day after the central bank chief said missing its debt goal was acceptable for the government. Public sector net borrowing excluding financial sector interventions rose to 14.410 billion pounds from 14.365 billion in August 2011 as ...

Reuters: Manufacturing in China contracted for the 11th month in a row in September, according to a private sector survey of factory managers that indicated the world’s second largest economy remains on track for a seventh quarter of slowing growth. The HSBC Flash China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed activity stabilized in September after ...

SINGAPORE: Business sentiment among Asia’s top companies fell for the second straight quarter, dragged down by export-orientated economies such as China and Japan, while domestic spending helped boost Southeast Asia’s outlook, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.  Concerns over global demand are hurting Asia’s export engines, with autos, technology and shipping sectors am...

Commendable achievements Over the years Sri Lanka has gained a considerable reputation for its achievements in social development. It punches above its weight on the UNDP’s Human Development Index. It has also performed very well in meeting the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which focus on indicators related to poverty, health, education and gender ...

NEW YORK (Reuters): Comparing the Federal Reserve to a rehab clinic offering addicted investors a synthetic high has been a favorite of Wall Street wags ever since the first round of Fed stimulus nearly four years ago. The punch line is that you always need more and more to get the same high and each ...

By Saman Gunadasa World Socialist Web Site: A scandal over the manipulation of shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange has erupted in recent weeks, after former Sri Lankan Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Thilak Karunaratne accused Government ministers of acting in league with speculators. Karunaratne was pressured by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to quit his position, ...

TIANJIN, China (Reuters): China is on track to meet this year’s target for economic growth and if needed the government could utilise a 100 billion yuan fiscal stability fund to boost growth, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday. Wen, speaking at a meeting of the World Economic Forum held in China’s eastern port city of ...

It is unfortunate that today many impressions of Sri Lanka in foreign countries are based on unverified facts, and wrong or deliberately manipulated disinformation, carried out by those who once supported the forces of terror. These same elements continue to sow the seeds of division and separatism through various media, and also influence politicians in ...

The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote 75 years ago: “It would be absurd to say that the profit motive does not appeal to the average Indian, but it is nevertheless true that there is no such admiration for it in India as there is in the west. The possessor of ...

Reuters: Asia-Pacific nations including China, the United States and Russia will promise measures to boost growth on Sunday and reject limits on food exports to try to revive the flagging global economy. Countries on the Pacific Rim were expected to end a two-day summit on an island off the Russian port city of Vladivostok by ...

Reuters: China has given the green light for 60 infrastructure projects worth more than $150 billion as it looks to energise an economy mired in its worst slowdown in three years, fuelling hopes the world’s growth engine may get a lift from the fourth quarter. Shares and steel futures jumped on the plans to build ...

GENEVA (Reuters): Unemployment among young people is likely to rise globally as the euro crisis hits emerging economies and more discouraged jobless youth drop out of the labour force altogether, the International Labour Organisation said on Tuesday. The ILO said jobless rates among people under 25 worldwide are expected to inch up to 12.9% by ...

In an exclusive interaction with the Gamechanger Team on the sidelines of the SLPL match between Basnahira Cricket Dundee and Uva Next, the Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Nishantha Ranatunga opened up with his thoughts on the Mahindra Sri Lanka Premier League, its future in the Sri Lankan cricket system and what it would do ...

Last week I met up with some key business people from Indonesia, which does heavy trading with China on the basis of subcontracted business, and is now attempting to diversify its business due to the volatility of the Chinese economy. This made me conduct some research on the Chinese economy. The findings highlighted the need ...

Reuters: China’s vast manufacturing sector has been badly hit by slowing new orders, two complementary surveys showed, a sign that the pace of growth in the world’s second-largest economy will weaken well into the third quarter. The final reading of the HSBC China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August fell to a seasonally adjusted ...

24th August 2012 Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance & Planning The Secretariat, Colombo 1. Dear Dr. Jayasundera, Establishment of a Financial Services Authority and a Banking and Finance Commission I suggest for your consideration that you duly evaluate the long-term national economic benefits of enhancing effective fiscal management capability ...

The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) together with the Bucks University featured the 2012 award winners from Singapore of global business associations and chief marketing officers under the theme ‘Is The Party Over?’ at Galadari Hotel, where a select audience of 200 business and marketers attended the event. Some of the key points discussed ...

The Finance Houses Association (FHA) has launched a Code of Ethics for registered finance companies for the benefit of all stakeholders of the industry. FHA said the new Code of Ethics would be a guideline for business operations of member finance companies in terms of customer services, confidentiality of information, legal obligations, employee recruitment, competitive ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas The technical sessions of the Association of Professional Bankers’ 24th anniversary convention were held yesterday, bringing the APB’s flagship event to a close. Aptly themed ‘Sustainability in volatility: The bankers’ challenge,’ each technical session explored an area that could throw obstacles in the path of bankers and the line-up of speak...

The NDB Group has delivered yet another strong performance for the first half year of 2012 recording a commendable profit after tax of Rs. 1,362 million to its shareholders, which is an increase of 36 per cent compared to the previous year. Chairman of the Bank Hemaka Amarasuriya stated: “The impressive results are attributable to ...

Reuters: Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram sought on Monday to allay investor worries about an economy growing at its weakest pace in almost a decade by pledging to address their concerns over taxes, public finances and interest rates. In his first comments since becoming finance minister on July 31, Chidambaram said it was important to ...

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The sanctions reducing Iran’s oil exports have played in the favour of major producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela which now export about 21 percent more crude to Asia’s biggest buyers compared to a year ago. Iran’s exports to China, Japan, South Korea and India have fallen by a third in ...

LONDON (Reuters): Britain’s economy shrank far more than expected in the second quarter, battered by everything from an extra public holiday to government spending cuts and the neighbouring euro zone crisis. Finance minister George Osborne said figures released on Wednesday showed Britain had “deep-rooted economic problems,” adding that the slump in the second quarter was ...

Following is the part one of the Daily FT article featuring the Acuity Stockbrokers Research on Economy and Strategy titled “Lion Leads Frontier” launched last week. Better than the rest General frontier market risks remain pertinent to Sri Lanka Investors in frontier markets are well aware of the risk-return tradeoff intrinsic to these markets. Low ...

Reuters: Workers living through the slowest run of global economic growth in more than three years are in fear for their jobs everywhere except in the very place investors are most concerned about – China. Despite six straight quarters of slowing growth, there are more job vacancies in China than there have been for around ...

BEIJING (Reuters): Beijing is eager to rewrite negative perceptions of its growing ties with Africa at a summit this week, citing expanding private investment and a push to shift low-end manufacturing to the continent long seen as a commodities and energy cache for China. Chinese state-owned firms in Africa face criticism for using imported labour ...

Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows rose 16 per cent in 2011, surpassing the 2005-2007 pre-crisis level for the first time, despite the continuing effects of the global financial and economic crisis and the current debt crisis in Europe, UNCTAD’s annual survey of investment trends reports. The World Investment Report 20121, subtitled ‘Towards a New ...