A number of articles which appeared in print media in the recent past signify the volatility in the economy. High volatility leads to vulnerability. Volatility and vulnerability are reflections of the haphazard nature of the economic policies and poor economic governance in a country. What is volatility? Volatility is the severity and the frequency with ...

The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote 75 years ago: “It would be absurd to say that the profit motive does not appeal to the average Indian, but it is nevertheless true that there is no such admiration for it in India as there is in the west. The possessor of ...

Human rights Human rights are on the top of agenda today. Nations accuse each other of violations of human rights of themselves and others. Rights are generally violated during conflicts and wars as the strength of the weapon supersedes peace over and stability and rule of law. There is no shortage of conflicts in most ...

Foreigners most bullish with net buying up 20% or Rs. 5 b; Market’s value up by Rs. 48 b between 20 July and 24 Aug. Despite original reservations by some that President Mahinda Rajapaksa shouldn’t have met with capital market stakeholders, the  Colombo stock market has proved otherwise, with the most bullish being foreign investors. ...

Fitch examines financing alternatives to the current predominant international borrowingsBy Cassandra Mascarenhas Discussing new investment opportunities and financing structures for Sri Lankan private sector entities to enter the current government dominated infrastructure financing in the country, Fitch Ratings Lanka hosted a seminar titled ‘Fitch Perspectives’ last week, featuring F...

The term social business first emerged in Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ book, ‘Banker to the Poor,’ wherein he describes the concept of social entrepreneurship. It has since then taken on a life of its own and in effect has become a new paradigm of study and practice in the world of business, banking and ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas The technical sessions of the Association of Professional Bankers’ 24th anniversary convention were held yesterday, bringing the APB’s flagship event to a close. Aptly themed ‘Sustainability in volatility: The bankers’ challenge,’ each technical session explored an area that could throw obstacles in the path of bankers and the line-up of speak...

Sunil S. Sirisena has been appointed as the new Chairman of the National Savings Bank with effect from 13 August 2012. He is a senior officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and prior to this, he has served as the Secretary to the Ministries of Education, Co-operatives and Internal Trade and Foreign Employment Promotion ...

A student of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) has brought honour to her motherland after winning the best presentation award in the SAFA category at the International Conference for CA Students in India recently. Cooray, who delivered a thought-provoking presentation titled ‘Walk the Talk: Presentation and Communication Skills – ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Economic growth slowed in the second quarter as consumers spent at their slowest pace in a year, increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to do more to bolster the recovery. Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5% annual rate between April and June, the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of ...

By a Special Correspondent A year or back from today, Sri Lankan economy had been sailing strongly amidst global economic typhoons. Most of the macro variables were reflecting peace dividends and rejuvenated hope. However, by mid 2011, the country’s trade deficit, fuelled by credit expansion was signalling early signs of an economic turmoil. Perhaps being ...

Marketing process for sales persons Under the marketing concept, the firm must find a way to discover unfulfilled customer needs and bring to market products that satisfy those needs. The process of doing so can be modelled in a sequence of steps: the situation is analysed to identify opportunities, the strategy is formulated for a ...

An important feature of the recent Sri Lanka Economic Summit, which both the Guest Speaker Gurcharan Das, Author, Columnist and Management Consultant and Keynote Speaker Dr. Kalpana Kochar, Chief Economist – South Asia of the World Bank, referred to were the opportunities presented to Sri Lanka by the ongoing process of globalisation and particularly the ...

MILAN/LONDON (Reuters): Italian fashion house Valentino has been snapped up by the Qatari royal family for 700 million euros ($857.5 million), the latest purchase of a top European luxury brand by an emerging market investor. The luxury label loved by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Audrey Hepburn said on Thursday that Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C, an ...

The Sri Lanka Economic Association or SLEA, the long-standing professional body of economists of Sri Lanka, has published some selected papers presented at its Annual Sessions in October 2011 in a volume titled ‘Achieving Economic Goals in the Midst of Global Challenges,’ the theme of the sessions. The volume, edited by two veteran economists – ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas Setting its sights on placing Sri Lanka in the global economy and expanding its reach in overseas markets, the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2012, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce’s annual flagship event, aptly themed ‘Positioning Sri Lanka in the Global Economy,’ commenced last evening at the Cinnamon Grand. In the context of ...

Reuters: China, Europe and Britain loosened monetary policy in the space of less than an hour on Thursday, signalling a growing level of alarm about the world economy, although suggestions of coordinated action were played down. Of the three, the surprise move was from Beijing which lowered its lending rate by 31 basis points to ...

After 11 years of making US higher education popular across the tiny island nation in Indian Ocean Scholarships for USA (Pvt) Ltd (www.scholarshipsforusa.com) has commenced promoting Sri Lanka as one of the most viable Study Abroad destinations for its numerous partners in US. SUSA believes the traffic needs to be both ways and there’s much ...

Sri Lanka’s new development tagline Sri Lanka’s current development tagline has been to make it the ‘Emerging Wonder of Asia’ as originally enunciated in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana: Vision for the Future’ and reaffirmed in both the Development Policy Framework of the Government issued in 2010 and the Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance and ...

By Marianne David MP and consultant economist Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday alleged that THE UNP’s criticism over the mismanagement of the economy and the Central Bank as well as the EPF’s investments in banking stocks have been emphatically validated by global rating agency Standard and Poor’s.“Standard and Poor’s reiterated what we have been saying ...

A laudable goal that needs much more workSocial justice to be the Government’s development philosophy The development philosophy of the present Government, as pronounced in the Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance and Planning for 2011 released two weeks ago, is a blend of social justice with economic progress (p 14). This is a ...

Minister for the Environment Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, speaking yesterday at a seminar entitled, ‘Emerging Issues on Trade, Climate Change and Food Security: Way Forward for South Asia’ held at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) Auditorium reiterated the impact climate change is having in South Asia. Minister for the Environment Anura Priyadarshana ...