BRUSSELS (Reuters): Euro zone economic sentiment defied expectations of stabilisation and again fell sharply in September, underlining the economic gloom brought on by the sovereign debt crisis as the euro zone sinks into a recession. The European Commission’s monthly economic sentiment survey showed the index for the 17 countries sharing the euro falling to 85 ...

The location of Sri Lanka has a strategic significance and this has been proven by the historical trading activities between Sri Lanka and ancient China, Egypt, and the Roman Empire. There is ample evidence to show that Sri Lanka was a main trading hub in Asia. The reasons for occupation of Sri Lanka by the ...

The place isn’t a paradise for minorities but the economy is recovering By Sam Baker Asuasentinel.com: The Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka has probably botched its dealings with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. Still, the disenchantment with Colombo

The global escalation of commodity prices in the latter part of last decade impacted Sri Lanka’s rice market, with retail prices showing sharp increases for the consumer. The regulatory forces with a ceiling on consumer prices and guaranteed price for paddy did alleviate this problem to some extent. Today it has taken a different turn ...

By Shanuka Tissera Amendments to the Petroleum Products (Special Provisions) Act have been finalised and approved by the Attorney General. It is expected that both bills will be presented to Parliament shortly for enactment. Pending the enactment of new legislations, the Cabinet of Ministers has appointed the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) as ...

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 ...

Brand Finance’s Annual Global Nation Brand Analysis Prologue Over the past three years, nation branding has received an enormous amount of coverage in Sri Lankan newspapers. Whilst some of these are based on the need to provide a marketing approach to building a nation, and its brand; many of the articles focus on developing a ...

Reuters: India’s industrial output fell for the third time in four months in June, adding to pressure on new Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to move quickly and pull Asia’s third-largest economy from its worst slowdown in almost a decade. The manufacturing-led slump provided

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

Can one imagine how long it took a ship to arrive from London to Colombo five centuries back? Now it takes only a couple days to courier a special package to any part of the world and a full file of any amount of documents could be sent to any part of the world in ...

by Sarath De Alwis The crisis is not in our system of higher education. The crisis is in not knowing what higher education is. Arrogance of presumed superior knowledge of the policy makers and dogmatism of the teachers has precipitated a debate that reflects a pedantry of crisis proportions. We do not seem to have ...

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

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 ...

Four examples; two bad and two goodThe website of the London Economist newspaper has a reference to an official of a certain country referring to a journalist in words similar to what follows – I have substituted words which would be appropriate to an officer and a gentleman addressing a lady, for what was actually ...

Boeing, Airbus report $35 b total firm orders Production issues in focus at quiet air show FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters): The world’s dominant aircraft makers, Airbus and Boeing, left a rain-swept Farnborough Airshow without the order deluge some had predicted, but each claiming victories as they prepare to focus on delivering a huge jet backlog from ...

Opposition MPs warn post-war gains will be wasted unless Govt. puts house in order Insist on better policies, respect for law and order Call for common agenda for clear and consistent regulations By Uditha Jayasinghe Opposition politicians joined the private sector yesterday in calling for the Government to work on law and order and consistent ...

Like Sri Lanka, India is also facing a fuel crisis. However, some Indian economic experts had analysed the situation and expressed an opinion, which is applicable to Sri Lanka as well. In 1970 America insisted that all petroleum (crude oil) dealings should be in US dollars. Several countries purchased excess US sdollar to be kept ...

LONDON WASHINGTON, (Reuters): The global economy is showing signs of deteriorating after manufacturing in the United States contracted in June for the first time in three years, European factories took another hefty blow and China and Japan were hit hard by crumbling orders from abroad. Business

BANGKOK (IPS): The just-ended United Nations sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro has exposed the discomfort that many developing Asian countries have over buzz words like ‘green economy’ and ‘green growth’ in development diplomacy. With the Economic and Social

Case study Middle East   Sri Lanka is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the world. It is surrounded by the Indian Ocean strategically located between West Asia and South East Asia and has been an important stop on the silk route or the Silk Road. It has all requirements to be one ...

Rio+20 has come and gone. For some, with June gone, the task may be looking at the flavour of the month for July to prop up different hoardings. The conference was concluded successfully and most of the final photos and comments indicated it was well attended and well run and perhaps well concluded. For sure, ...

The Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Rating Services assigned a score of 8 (very high risk) to the Sri Lankan economy and banking industry last week. The role of ratings agencies in the lead-up to the global financial crisis (2008) was certainly highly questionable. There are also issues related

A solution for loss-making SOEs? In the USA, a new corporate entity referred to as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) has been brought into being. The states of Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, California and Vermont have legislation which permits companies to combine the profit motive with the purpose of making a positive impact on society and ...

By Marianne David MP and consultant economist Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday alleged that THE UNP’s criticism over the mismanagement of the economy and the Central Bank as well as the EPF’s investments in banking stocks have been emphatically validated by global rating agency Standard