Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has saved USD 300 million in foreign exchange for the year 2020, CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe told the Parliament Committee on Public Enterprisers (COPE) recently. He stated that the government was able to take advantage of this due to the fall in the price of a barrel of crude oil last year…
Colombo bourse closed on a positive note on Wednesday (20), with the benchmark All share Price Index (ASPI) recovering from a nosedive yesterday. The ASPI surged 75.48 points (or 0.97%) to close at 7,884.45 while the S&P SL20 index, which includes the 20 largest and most liquid stocks increased by 37.32 points ( or 1.22%) to close 3,096.35….
The US$ 13.5 billion export target set for merchandise export sectors in early 2020 remains challenging, requiring not only strong efforts from local enterprises, but also the recovery of global demand amid complicated Covid-19 situation. Amid severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports remain at US$ 9.9 billion in 2020, which is…
According to the daily exchange report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), the current buying rate of the US Dollar today (20) stands at Rs.192.85 and selling rate of the US dollar stands at Rs.198.26. Meanwhile, commenting on the continuous depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of…
(Reuters) – The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday said the global lender needed more resources to help heavily indebted countries, citing a highly uncertain global economic outlook and a growing divergence between rich and poor countries. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who has long advocated a new allocation of the IMF’s own currency, Special…
The Central Bank will be introducing priority sector lending targets for the micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) to support a broad based economic revival, in consultation with the banking community, Chandranath Amarasekara, Director of Economic Research at the Central Bank said yesterday (19). ” Priority sector lending targets for micro, small and medium scale enterprises…
Following the recalibration of the Sri Lankan National rating scale by Fitch Ratings, the most transparent credit rating agency, Sierra Cables PLC has had its rating revised upward to AA-(lka): Outlook stable from the previous BB (lka): Outlook negative. The company realized a profit of Rs.217 million for the 9 months ended 2020, a 36%…
The benchmark All share Price Index (ASPI), which reached an all-time high of 7,922.66 points yesterday (18), overtaking the previous best of 7,811 points set on 14 February 2011, plunged by 113.69 points today (19) to close at 7,808.97, re-affirming Newton’s third law of motion, “every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This…
Sri Lanka’s economic growth is expected to ‘strongly rebound’ in 2021 with a growth of around 5%- 6%, Central Bank Governor Deshamanya Prof. W.D. Lakshman said. “The Government and the Central Bank are also continuing discussions with bilateral and multilateral partners, internationally and locally, and we are confident the Sri Lankan economy will continue to display…
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Trade for awarding tariff concession as well as conduct discussions with Mongolia for identifying tariff concessions that be mutually agreed upon between the two parties, the state information office said. Mongolia has been officially appointed a stakeholder of Asia Pacific Trade Accord (APTA)…
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