As part of the economic diplomacy programme of the High Commission, the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Kenya Velupillai Kananathan, visited on 31 August, 2021 the Hela Clothing factory in Nairobi. The purpose was to interact with the Sri Lankan investors in Kenya who remit investment proceeds to contribute to the foreign exchange earnings of Sri Lanka…
Sentiment in corporate circles bounces back despite the multitude of challenges In a midyear economic update, ICRA Lanka revised its forecast for Sri Lanka’s economic growth this year, downgrading it from 3.6 percent to 3.4 percent. The rating agency notes that this projection is based on the assumption that there will not be any major…
Sri Lanka’s rubber plantations are potentially on the brink of being wiped out, battered by a fast-spreading leaf disease and the sector could be nearing the ‘point of no-return’, commercial rubber growers claim, requesting for urgent government intervention to address the pressing issue. The crisis, which evokes comparisons with the ‘coffee rust’ blight which wiped…
The Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka in collaboration with Sri Lanka Tourism recently hosted a virtual business to business (B2B) interactive session with the Member states of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) with the aim of enhancing tourism cooperation in the region. CICA is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting…
During August 2021, Sri Lanka received its share of the global SDR allocation by the IMF and the initial disbursements under the bilateral currency swap arrangement between the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Bangladesh Bank. The SDR allocation received by Sri Lanka was equivalent to US dollars 787 million while a sum of…
Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100), increased to 6.0 per cent in August 2021 from 5.7 per cent in July 2021. This was driven by monthly increases of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Subsequently, Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 11.5…
In an effort to enhance the nation’s digital financial landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka’s leading private sector bank HNB PLC recently announced that its secure corporate payment platform, “PAYFAST”, had recorded over a colossal Rs.100 billion in volume during the first half of 2021. Among the most cost-effective digital solutions…
The Kandy Esala Perahera is the culmination of over 1700 years of history, tradition, and artisanship and during the annual event, the citadel of Kandy comes alive in a breathtaking pageant of sound and illumination. This year’s event was held between the 13th and 23rd of August, with all customary affairs being carried out under…
Bangladesh is set to send US$100 million more to Sri Lanka Monday (30) to help the island nation in minimising foreign-exchange crunch on their economy, officials said. The fund from Bangladesh has been provided under the currency-swap agreement signed by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) on August 03….
The Silk Road Journal by Mahika Ming Most Sri Lankans are praising Dinesh Priyantha for winning their first ever Paralympics Gold Medal in Tokyo. He set a new world record by throwing the Javelin 67.79m. Samitha Dulan who won the Bronze is also being praised. Dinesh brought honour to the motherland in Rio as well…
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