Sri Lanka may remove a 10 per cent price trading limit on some stocks listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, according to its Chief Executive Officer. The Bourse planned to introduce a “transparent, Sri Lanka-centric” volatility management mechanism, CEO Surekha Sellahewa said yesterday, without giving a timeframe. Stocks identified using a formula designed by the ...

(Bloomberg): Sri Lanka doesn’t need to further tighten monetary policy for now even though an increase in fuel and transportation costs and a weakening currency may stoke inflation, the head of the central bank said. The central bank’s rate increase earlier this month will have a “demand-driven impact” and help moderate inflation, its Governor Ajith ...

Sri Lanka’s benchmark stock index, the world’s worst performer this year, may extend its slump as the central bank raises interest rates to curb inflation, according to HSBC Holdings Plc’s private banking unit. HSBC Private Bank, which oversees about $499 billion, will wait for stock valuations to fall to “single digit” multiples before it considers ...

Reuters: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday welcomed Sri Lanka’s policy shift towards a flexible exchange rate, saying it will help contain the trade deficit and protect the nation’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves. In a marked policy shift, Sri Lanka’s Central

By Jyoti Malhotra Business Standard (New Delhi): India’s promise to sell two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) to Sri Lanka, during their first-ever defence dialogue in New Delhi last week, as well as the recent agreement to build an electricity transmission line from Madurai to Trincomalee and connect the electricity grids of the two countries, is ...

(Srilankamirror) -The International Monetary Fund says it is encouraged by Sri Lanka's monetary and exchange rate policy changes amid a sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves and significant widening of the current account deficit. "There was broad agreement that a decisive policy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday said it was encouraged by Sri Lanka's monetary and exchange rate policy changes amid a sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves and significant...

Chemanex Group of Companies (a member of the CIC Holdings Group of Companies), a globally recognised corporate leader in manufacturing and exporting value-added speciality compounds and intermediates, added another feather to its cap with the soft opening of its subsidiary Chemcel Ltd.’s state-of-the-art Carboxy Methylated Starch (CMS) extrusion plant, which took place last week. The ...

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it did not need the final tranche of a $2.6-billion IMF bailout thanks to the country's healthy foreign exchange reserves.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka said Tuesday it did not need the final tranche of a $2.6-billion IMF bailout thanks to the country's healthy foreign exchange reserves.   The loan was granted in 2009 by the International Monetary Fund just after the end of the country's bloody ethnic civil war

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it did not need the final tranche of a $2.6-billion IMF bailout thanks to the country’s healthy foreign exchange reserves.

Sri Lanka said Tuesday it did not need the final tranche of a $2.6-billion IMF bailout thanks to the country's healthy foreign exchange reserves.

Reuters: Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meet this week amid a standoff over the Central Bank’s defence of the rupee currency, which has cost $ 2.6 billion in foreign exchange reserves since July – the same amount the global lender has pledged to loan. Bucking

Treasury (T) Bill weighted average yields (WAYs) at last week’s weekly primary auction remained unchanged for the third consecutive week, last week, but those are not market determined yields, a market source told this reporter. Even in the case of US Treasuries, yields move at least one or two basis points (bps) up or down, ...

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka recently unveiled its pioneering Sixth Strategic Plan – communicating in all transparency its plans for the forthcoming financial period – based on the theme ‘Raising the Bar’. The Sixth Strategic Plan, like its predecessors, takes root from the policy measures underscored in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana,’ and is formulated to ...

Confirming its capacity to manufacture high quality dry powder capsules for inhalation in the treatment of asthma, Sri Lanka’s first-ever centre for respiratory care formulation and manufacturing, Lina Manufacturing, received the prestigious World Health Organization GMP certification. Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP are practices and systems of manufacturing, quality control, and quality...

Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal has been increasingly under attack by UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva over some of the policies, actions and comments of the professional-turned-politician-turned-Chief of the monetary regulatory authority. Cabraal’s ambitious and robust Roadmap for 2012 and beyond too had come under critique as being overconfident. However, this is unlikely to ...

(Srilankamirror) - The Central Bank said Sri Lanka's foreign reserves slipped 11.8 percent to 7,095 million US dollars by end September from a month earlie. The central bank said reserves were equivalent to 4.6 months of imports. Sri Lanka has a dollar soft peg, where the central bank tries to control both the exchange rate and the interest rates, LBO reports.

Parliament yesterday passed the 2012 budget with 151 votes for and 50 against, giving the nod to an overall increase in spending by 14 per cent and a shock 3% currency devaluation that has already been put into effect. The budget reading last week was overshadowed by the president’s announcement of a 3% currency devaluation ...

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. ...

 Conflicting views remain after Budget’s 3% devaluation move PB says rupee should be market-driven; Cabraal says will defend Conflicting views on the country’s currency remain with Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera saying it should be market-driven, whilst Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal maintains that it will be defended. The simmering or what seems to be ...

Good governance activist and former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chandra Jayaratne is raising issues of accountability on the part of Central Bank over past management of foreign exchange, following the 2012 Budget’s devaluation move. “With the Budget directing the Central Bank to depreciate the Sri Lanka Rupee by 3%, the Central Bank ...

Multilateral donor emphasises devaluation should help exports, reserves Opines 2012 Budget consistent with earlier plans Withholds eighth tranche of $ 2.6 b loan; mission in Jan The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that Sri Lanka’s devaluation of its currency was a “step in the right direction” that should favour export competitiveness and preserve foreign ...

Representatives of 28 members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) including Sri Lanka met in Bangkok on 11 and 12 October to discuss Asia-Pacific perspectives on the agenda of the G20 summit to be held in Cannes, France, on 3 and 4 November 2011. Central Bank of ...

Resumes Reverse Repo Auctions A liquidity crisis in the market forced Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to reintroduce the reverse repo auction at Wednesday’s trading, an action which it last resorted to when the war was on; two years ago. The auction was repeated in the last two working days of last week as ...

Leif Lybecker Eskesen, Chief Economist for HSBC India and ASEAN will visit Sri Lanka this week. During his visit, he will address the Bank’s corporate customers on ‘Asia’s Inflation – Growth Tango: who’s dominating the dance?’ at a special Power Breakfast, scheduled to be held on 7 October 2011, at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Leif ...

IMF urges more exchange rate flexibility CB defends interventions as necessary More discussions expected in Washington this week Reuters: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday said there has been no timetable set for a review of Sri Lanka’s progress under a $2.6 billion loan, the precursor to disbursement of the programme’s eighth tranche. The global ...

CBSL’s ER Stance As long as Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) owned Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has sufficient rupee liquidity and foreign exchange (forex) reserves, it can play around with the exchange rate (ER), a banker told this reporter. CBSL’s gross official forex reserves as per available statistics were US$ ($) 8.1 billion ...

Last week, media were abuzz with two reports on how undesired exchange rate movements could worry governments. One was a currency under pressure for appreciation in the market and the other was a currency moving in the opposite. Swiss Franc: One way Journey to Appreciation The first was the case of the Swiss Franc which ...

of its staff mission said Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves ...