Reuters: Sri Lanka’s Central Bank can continue to maintain the rupee exchange by selling dollars from the foreign reserves as it expects large dollar inflows in the coming months, the Central Bank Governor said on Tuesday. The rupee was devalued three per cent on 22 November, a day after President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity ...

Sri Lanka will welcome its 800,000th tourist today, getting a step closer to the new target of 850,000 arrivals by end 2011. The country’s tourism industry has grown in leaps and bounds this year, surpassing the original target arrival for 2011 of 750,000 in November. It is hoped that December, known as the peak month, ...

Wide ranging and strong participation at ‘Sri Lanka Expo 2012’ by Indian industries and businesses have now been confirmed. Meanwhile, leading Indian investors are planning to pioneer rural BPO in Sri Lanka and are also eyeing Sri Lanka’s mini hydro power, pharmaceutical manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, including Colombo’s upcoming MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System),...

A delegation led by S. Gopalakrishnan, Vice President, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) met Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman and CEO Janaka Ratnayake yesterday. The delegation comprised 13 members of CII and among them there were high powered person of renowned brands in Sri Lanka, ICICI Bank, TVS and Sons Ltd., etc. The main business ...

To better harness the post-war rebound in tourism, The Lighthouse Hotel is to add more rooms. The Company’s Board of Directors last week resolved to expand the hotel by the construction of 15-20 new rooms, a new restaurant, and a new bar with an extension to the spa under the expansion plan of the Company ...

Sri Lanka’s trade deficit rose 137.4% to US$ 905.2 million in September from $ 381.4 million in the same month last year, the Central Bank said yesterday in its monthly review. September imports rose 61.3% to US$ 1.76 billion compared to $ 1.09 billion a year earlier making the trade deficit in the first three ...

Around 100 attend New World Securities event; Ambassador Karannagoda and Lankan  firms highlight post-war rebound and potential Nisthar Cassim reporting from Tokyo December 8: Around 100 Japanese firms and investors today got a thorough update on post-war Sri Lanka’s rebound and unprecedented opportunities at an Investment Forum organised in Tokyo by New World Securities. Held ...

The Ceylon Income Fund recorded an after-tax net return of 12.39% to emerge as the best performing fixed income fund in Sri Lanka for the financial year ending 31/03/2011. It is also the best performing fund of all Unit Trusts in Sri Lanka during the 10 months to October 31, 2011* while being amongst the ...

DUBAI (Reuters): Dubai, which narrowly averted a bond default in 2009, could use money raised by its sovereign wealth fund to help repay $3.8 billion in bonds owed by state-linked firms which mature next year, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Gulf Arab emirate has clawed its way back from the ...

CIMB and the Colombo Stock Exchange jointly concluded a Sri Lanka Corporate Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 30 November 2011, themed ‘Invest Sri Lanka: Opportunities in a New Era’. This conference aim was to provide a snapshot of what lies ahead for the Sri Lankan economy and why Sri Lanka is one of the ...

The following report is based on the speech Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa made, concluding the debate on the second reading of the Budget for the year 2012. This is the seventh budget presented by the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa I regret there was no constructive criticism at all during the debate on the ...

NDB Bank recently opened its newest branch in Bandarawela, in a bid to extend their service to all parts of the country. With the opening of the Bandarawela branch, NDB Bank increases its growing network to 57 branches. NDB Bank is set to take Bandarawela to the pinnacle of finance through its services. Bandarawela is ...

Cabraal says that reserves were built to weather demanding situation, calls on the non-banking sector to seek funds from capital markets and wants it to target 70% of GDP by 2016 By Uditha Jayasinghe Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday defended declining reserves, insisting that they were built up to be used in times ...

First-of-its-kind innovative financing in the regionThe International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has extended a seven-year US$ 65 million (approximately Rs 7.4 billion) financing facility to the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC to expand the latter’s lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). IFC’s largest financial markets investment in Sri ...

Twenty-three students who received training under the NDB Jeevana Livelihood Development Scheme recently graduated in Colombo. The students passed out following a comprehensive training course in Hotel Operations, conducted in association with the International Hotel School of Mt. Lavinia Hotel. This is the second batch from the east coast to have completed and graduated in ...

Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) will help to convert the manual toll collection system now being used on first expressway into an electronic toll collection (ETC) system. Currently tolls are collected by operators manually at exit points based on the distance travelled on the access-controlled four-lane expressway from Kottawa in Colombo District to Pinnaduwa in ...

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. ...

The defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 has wrought a perceptible change in Sri Lanka’s economic climate, recognised by international financial institutions, foreign media and economic analysts, says in an article on Bangkok Post published on November 28. “Today they see Sri Lanka as one of Asia’s fast-growing nations with huge potential”, the report ...

Says depreciation by Budget only a one off, admits other sectors will suffer but notes growth will offset negatives By Uditha Jayasinghe The detriments of depreciation must be countered by aggressive growth in exports, the Central Bank Governor said yesterday, insisting that impediments to the industry had been removed by the latest Budget. Speaking for ...

Managing Director and CEO of McQuire Rens and Jones (Pvt) Ltd. and non-executive director on the Board of Entrust Securities Ltd., Nalin Jayasuriya, recently conducted two sessions for the top team of Servicom Medical Products Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recently. His sessions were followed by with a focus group discussion facilitated by Nalin, on ...

Quick take on 2012 Budget by IIFL Securities Ceylon The 2012 Budget was relatively uneventful. It could be viewed as building on the significant tax reforms brought in by its predecessor whilst focusing on long-term infrastructure-led development and fiscal consolidation. The Government envisaging a fiscal deficit target of 6.2% of GDP for 2012 is a ...

By Cheranka Mendis The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) yesterday announced that the Budget presented in Parliament on Monday was a development-oriented Budget with special tools to achieve the targeted level of 8% growth and US$ 4,000 per capita by 2016. From Left. Council Member S.R Balachandran, Honorary Treasurer H.A Wehalle, Deputy ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas KPMG’s 10th Middle East and South Asia (MESA) Partners’ two-day conference was successfully concluded in Colombo on Tuesday. The event brought together over 100 partners from KPMG offices in 15 countries across the region. Ajith Nivard A key event in the firm’s global calendar, the two-day conference held at the Cinnamon Grand, ...

Arrenga Capital Research takes a deeper look at Budget 2012 and impact on select listed companies 1. A challenging deficit target – 6.2% of GDP in 2012 I. Government revenue targeted to grow by 20.2% YoY to Rs. 1,126.1 b (14.7% of GDP) II. Total Government expenditure to rise 14.1% YoY to Rs. 1,594.9 b ...

The rupee trading froze on Monday after President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced a surprise three per cent devaluation with immediate effect in the 2012 Budget speech to help exporters and cut import costs. Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said the devaluation would take effect from Tuesday, but assured that there wouldn’t be any further cut ...

By Marianne David, Dinali Goonewardene, Cheranka Mendis, Cassandra Mascarenhas, Devin Jayasundera and Chamitha Kuruppu Brandix CEO Ashroff Omar Overall, we are glad that all that we had asked for, having worked with the Treasury before the Budget, has come in. There are slight tweaks from our proposals to what has been given, but overall we ...

If we look at the corporate sector performance of 2010/11, the results of the listed companies was outstanding, with revenue growing by 184% and profits growing by a 418%, whilst the cash in the bank is at Rs. 168 billion, which incidentally is higher than the FDI target set for Sri Lanka of 1.5 billion ...

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s tea production fell in October for a seventh straight month due to adverse weather and a high base effect, the State-run Tea Board said on Friday. Tea production in October recorded 23.69 million kg against 27.88 million kg in the same month last year. The output in the first 10 months has ...

Analysts say sound fiscal programme for 2012 and medium term private sector oriented policy framework crucial for country to move forward putting behind controversial Expropriation Act Improving fiscal management gives hope for further progress Robust public investment programme; lower deficit; greater clarity and consistency taking on from 2011 Budget envisaged Budget 2012 tipped to showcase ...

Exports, imports up in Sept; Healthy financial inflows Two commercial banks infuse $ 250 m capital from overseas sources; corporate offshore debt capital raising tops $260 m Private sector borrowing averages Rs. 37 b per month in 2011 CB leaves policy rates unchanged for 10th straight month despite benign inflation and the inflation outlook Urges ...