The Cabinet of Ministers of Sri Lanka once again appears to have approved investment concessions for three super luxury integrated resort projects, the recent gazette notification published showed.

The export earnings rose 13.2 percent year-on-year (YoY) to US $ 986.1 million while the import expenditure expanded 2.1 percent YoY to US $ 1.56 billion in December2013.

Sri Lanka received 146,575 tourists during the month of January (2014), up 32.6 percent from the corresponding month of the previous year, data released by the country’s tourism authority revealed.

Sri Lanka’s rubber prices have seen a considerable decline since the beginning of the new year, an analysis of the Colombo rubber auction prices by Mirror Business showed.

Bloomberg’s regular economic forecast on Sri Lanka showed a sense of relative optimism for 2014 on many indicators, though they remained below the Central Bank’s overly ambitious estimates for the ensuing years.

The average city hotel occupancy rate during the year 2013 stood at 65 percent, down from 70 percent in 2012, despite an increase in tourist arrivals, Colombo City Hotels Association Chairman M. Shanthikumar said.

Sri Lanka’s business climate stands as the island’s strongest attraction for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), a factor which must be greatly improved on through targeted reforms, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Chairperson and Lion Brewe

Satisfactory progress has been made on the consolidation of banking and non-banking sectors of the country, Central Bank in a recent statement said.

Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) says the Central Bank is likely to further cut key policy rates if no significant improvement was recorded in private sector credit growth amid falling headline inflation.

Sri Lanka’s interest rates are at an appropriate level and the Central Bank probably will keep borrowing costs steady for the next three to six months if current conditions persist, Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal was quoted as saying to Bloomber

The Central Bank yesterday dismissed recent allegations of manipulating economic statistics by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), saying that such allegations are “unfounded and baseless.”

Efforts to drive the Sri Lankan apparel sector into a new growth phase may hinge on the success of the potential free trade agreement (FTA) in the offing with China, according to Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Secretary General Tuli Cooray.

Sri Lanka Tourism yesterday said it had topped the arrival target of 1.2 million tourists set for 2013, after it adopted a new method of calculation.

Sri Lanka will change its inflation index to change the basket of items and broaden coverage to the whole nation rather than just the capital city, the state-run statistics office said yesterday

Sri Lanka expects a moderation in the growth of remittance inflows in the future, owing to structural changes that are expected to take place in the economy.

Sri Lanka’s second largest trade partner in SAARC is looking for more Lankan exports in the coming year, while also eyeing Sri Lanka’s sugar sector entry,

The relatively low rate at which Sri Lanka sold its latest US $ 1 billion bond issue reflects the confidence international investors have placed in the sovereign bond issuances of Sri Lanka, the Central Bank said yesterday.

Sri Lanka yesterday commenced the sale of her sixth international sovereign bond. International rating agencies Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s rated the bond at ‘BB-(EXP)’, ‘B+’ and ‘(P)B1’, r

The Central Bank yesterday compressed the policy rate corridor to 150 basis points (bps) from the current 200 points, by cutting the rate for the lending of overnight funds to the banking system by 50 basis points, claming “volatility in the in

New foreign entrants to Sri Lanka’s banking sector will be required to incorporate their businesses locally commencing from 2016, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal.

Crude edged higher in Asian trade yesterday on supply concerns following escalating violence in oil-producer South Sudan, but gains were capped as dealers sat on the sidelines awaiting fresh leads after the festive season.

All Sri Lankan trade and business chambers must work together to foster improved standards of debate and discussion around economic and even social policy according to outgoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative to Sri Lanka an

Export of Sri Lankan spices increased sharply to 40.4 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) from January to October of this year, boosted by a drastic rise in exports of pepper and Cloves, according to Spices & Allied Products Producers’ & Traders

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank (CB) will implement the third and the latest installment of Basel Accords— BASEL III beginning 2014, requiring the banks to further strengthen their capital buffers and also wanting them to decrease bank leverage,

Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed a 13-member group from China’s ‘Travel Channel’, at the Bandaranaike International Airport, who arrived here to promote the Island aggressively in China via the Channel starting from January 2014.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned the government for using banks and other financial institutions to borrow overseas on its behalf, as it could pose additional risks to the financial system.

The Sri Lankan government has started fresh talks with India, in a bid to bring changes to the existing Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as the controversial Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) has not come to fruition due to pr

The Central Bank kept the policy rates unchanged for the month of December amid the recent pick up in the private credit and debt repayments by stateowned corporations, cutting the burden on state banksandthegovernment.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed concerns over the recent budget proposal to reduce personal income tax rates, and described it as an act of giving away the money government badly needed.

Sri Lanka’s ship supplier industry must look to float a common bond in order to increase its lobbying power and push for concessions not granted with Budget 2014, according to Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Harbour Master, Captain Ravi Jayawi