LONDON (Reuters): European stocks rose while bonds and the euro were mostly steady on Thursday ahead of a European Central Bank meeting that is expected to cut interest rates, the first act in two crunch days for efforts to quell the euro zone’s debt crisis. The ECB is also expected to unveil a new package ...

Reuters: China’s annual rate of export growth slowed in November versus October, vice commerce minister Chong Quan told reporters on Wednesday, confirming market expectations that deteriorating external conditions are dragging on the world’s No. 2 economy. “Export growth in November was even slower than October,” Chong told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference .....

PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters): Standard & Poor’s has warned it may carry out an unprecedented mass downgrade of euro zone countries, including Germany and France, if EU leaders fail to deliver a convincing agreement on how to solve the region’s debt crisis in a summit on Friday. The ratings warning sent markets reeling and drew a ...

HONG KONG (AFP): Asian markets mostly rose Monday, lifted by strong US jobs data and Italy’s agreement of new austerity measures, while dealers were also looking ahead to a Franco-German meeting to save the euro. Investor confidence remained high after last week’s rally that was spurred by the decision of six major central banks to ...

By Ian The President in his speech at the opening of the Southern Expressway said that this could be the beginning of building a modern society. He also mentioned that had there been such an expressway linking the north with the south the extremists would not have succeeded in capitalising on the mistrust among communities. ...

Virtusa Corporation, a global IT services company that offers a broad range of information technology services, including IT consulting, technology implementation, and application outsourcing services, announced yesterday it has been recognised by American Banker, Bank Technology News and IDC Financial Insights on the 2011 FinTech 100 List. The list, currently in its eighth year, ranks the .....

By Cheranka Mendis With mobile penetration directly linked to increasing economic growth in a country, Sri Lanka with its bullish growth prospective stands to benefit heavily from the ever-expanding ICT and telecommunication sector. Alcatel-Lucent Asia Pacific President Rajeev Singh-Molares who was in Sri Lanka for a brief visit yesterday told the media that a World ...

Having launched Sri Lanka’s first-ever equity investments and financial information portal, Sri Lanka Equity Analytics (www.srilankaequity.com) recently celebrated its successive second year of operations by reaching the milestone of 5,000 registered online memberships and over five million hits. Sri Lanka Equity Analytics is a financial portal designed to address varying needs of the invest...

The Arab League approved by a majority vote on Sunday sweeping economic sanctions on Syria over its crackdown on protesters and the Qatari foreign minister said if Arabs failed to contain the crisis, other foreign powers could intervene. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani has previously said Arabs wanted to ...

No unanimity on exchange rate movement A front page headline news item in this paper on last Saturday had reported on an apparent division of opinion between the two top policy makers of the country, namely the Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera and the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, on the depreciation of the ...

Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of Pakistan and Maldives Monetary Authority to participateThe first ever Governor’s Challenge Trophy- global commerce quiz will be held on 13 December in Colombo. The quiz has taken an international dimension with three major regional central banks participating along with the Sri Lankan corporate, banking and other sectors for ...

Reuters: France and Germany agreed on Thursday to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti that they trusted the independent central bank ...

(Reuters) – England have signed a unique sponsorship agreement with Investec that will see the specialist bank and asset managing company backing test cricket for the next 10 years. “This is excellent news… and a further boost following the England team’s recent achievement in becoming the world’s number one ranked test side,” England and Wales ...

BEIJING (Reuters): A long-term global recession is certain to happen and China must focus on domestic problems, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan has said. “The one thing that we can be certain of, among all the uncertainties, is that the global economic recession caused by the international financial crisis will be chronic,” Wang was quoted ...

Public interest activist Nihal Sri Ameresekere last week fired separate letters to Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal and Information Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, raising questions over their individual remarks on the contentious Expropriation Bill. The letter to Cabraal was on the Central Bank’s statement on the bill, also known as the Revival Bill. ...

Economy minister advises against buying foreign cash, gold Dollar rush pushes forex price 23 pct above official rate Struggling to control rate, cen bank names new forex head TEHRAN (Reuters): The Iranian government has asked its citizens not to buy dollars, in an effort to stem a rush for hard currency that has sent the ...

The Colombo stock market plunged further yesterday prolonging the misery as panic selling picked up heightening investor fears. The market saw Rs. 25 billion in value wiped off bringing the total to over Rs. 150 billion since 3rd November. Reinforcing market’s pulse, Reuters said mainly due to negative sentiment created by an expropriation bill amid ...

DUBAI (Reuters): Qatar Airways slammed the brakes on an expected $6.5 billion deal with Airbus at the last minute on Tuesday, throwing the Dubai Air Show into disarray as the airline’s head signed a deal with Boeing and told its European rival to go back to basics. Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said Airbus was ...

All of the Commonwealth will today focus on the crucial vote for the host of 2018 Commonwealth Games with Sri Lankan contingent publicly and personally upbeat about candidate city Hambantota’s chances. Sri Lanka’s spirited southern port city Hambantota and Australia’s Gold Coast need minimum 36 votes out of 71 Commonwealth Games Associations at the CGF ...

DNH Financial Ltd., is confident that investors can beat the bearish market provided a portfolio is built comprising most compelling companies in the ASPI not only based on macro-economic fundamentals but closely tied to local consumption dynamics. This assessment is contained in DNH’s weekly stock market review, excerpts of which are as follows. A flash ...

REUTERS (New Delhi): Rahul Gandhi is likely to succeed his mother and India’s most powerful politician Sonia Gandhi as Congress party chief in four to eight weeks, The Economic Times reported on Saturday, citing several unnamed party leaders and a government minister. While the party spokesmen denied any knowledge of the development and refused to ...

Muttiah Muralitharan, the most successful bowler in the history of cricket, is to play a key role in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota 2018 bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Now retired from international cricket, Murali (39) seemingly has one more special delivery up his sleeve for Sri Lanka. He is part of a delegation travelling ...

Confidence, the most critical element of the business climate Need of the hour Investment needs to increase from 28% (2010) to 34% of GDP to attain the Government’s growth target of 8%, as Sri Lanka’s incremental capital output ratio is 4.2. Public investment has been capped at 6%-7% of GDP. This means that private investment, ...

Following is the address delivered by Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama at the fourth South Asia Economic Summit (SAES IV) Plenary Session: In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, there has been a noticeable shift in economic clout, moving from the USA and the debt-plagued countries of the Eurozone, to ...

Reuters: Asian shares fell and commodities slipped as the dollar spiked to a three-month high against the yen following Japan’s intervention, prompting investors to book profits after last week’s rally. The dollar rose more than 4 percent against the yen to above 79 yen, hours after briefly falling to a record low of 75.31 yen ...

REUTERS : Asian stocks headed for their best week in nearly three years after a long-awaited plan to resolve the European debt crisis sparked a huge relief rally in riskier assets, while the euro took a breather after jumping to a seven-week high. European shares were set to extend the previous session’s sharp rally, with ...

Reuters: The head of Europe’s bailout fund said on Friday he does not expect to reach a conclusive deal with Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing but expects the surplus-rich country to continue buying bonds issued by the fund. Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), said the bailout deal ...

Reuters: Euro zone leaders struck a deal with private banks and insurers on Thursday for them to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek government bonds under a plan to lower Greece’s debt burden and try to contain the two-year-old euro zone crisis. The agreement was reached after more than eight hours of hard-nosed ...

Qatar’s economic growth is expected to drop sharply to 5.1 percent in 2012, down from a projected 15 percent for this year due to receding hydrocarbon expansion, the Gulf state’s development planning authority GSDP said on Tuesday. “The GSDP foresees a sea change in the economy’s dynamics in 2012,” the General Secretariat for Development Planning ...

Sri Lanka Economic Association Conference – Key takes at the inauguration By Dinali Goonewardene The Government in addition to domestic constraints faces a series of external and global constraints and the Sri Lanka Economic Association at its annual sessions from 13-14 October 2011 discussed this under the theme ‘Achieving National Economic Goals Amidst Global Challenges’. ...