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(London) REUTERS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s protégé appealed to the British yesterday to stay in the European Union, saying her compatriots had not forgotten how Britain welcomed Germany back as a sovereign nation after World War Two.Conservative leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as leader of the Christian
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COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s rupee closed firmer for a second straight session yesterday, helped by dollar selling by banks and after the IMF said it would resume discussions with the island nation for further disbursal of part of a US$1.5 billion loan and the Central Bank chief said around US$5 borrowing in the pipeline could help debt repayments.
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The Central Bank Governor Dr.Indrajit Coomaraswamy said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed for flexibility to revise fiscal targets set for this year, following the discussions held in Washington, early this week. Delivering the keyn
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President Maithripala Sirisena, who is currently on an official visit to Philippines, yesterday signed three loan agreements totaling US $ 455 million with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for projects in higher education and transport as well as technical assistance loan for the urban sector.
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Meanwhile Governor Coomaraswamy told Mirror Business that the Central Bank will start the process to raise at least US $ 1 to US $ 1.5 billion via issuing dollar denominated international sovereign bonds (ISBs) in a matter of days. The Cabinet has approved a proposal to raise up to US $2 billion via ISBs, he said. Coomaraswam
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Sri Lanka will activate the partly completed South Asia’s most sophisticated, national-scale electronic company registration system next week, which is expected to boost the country’s Doing Business Index ranking significantly.
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The ongoing tariff war between the United States and China will have far-reaching consequences for the trade relations of other countries. Even South Asia — one of the world’s least economically integrated regions with relatively less presence in global value chains compared to East and Southeast Asia — will be affected. While the bilateral dispute may create some economic opportunities for South Asia, they will be outweighed by
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A cup of tea is every Sri Lankan’s morning mantra. This might not be the case much longer as Sri Lanka may face a shortage of milk powder as several leading milk powder importers are reported to have taken a collective decision to suspend imports.
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Banking, telecommunication and consumer-related stocks on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) are more likely to outperform the rest this year, after a tumultuous ride in 2018, where notable erosions in valuations stoked by international and domestic headwinds, were seen.
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A possibility of a merger explored between People’s Merchant Finance PLC (PMF) and People’s Leasing & Finance PLC (PLC) was abandoned last week, as the former closed a deal with an investor to infuse fresh capital followed by a rights issue which will put the company’s core capital on top of Central Bank’s minimum requirement. PMF was transferred to th
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Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) is to expedite the implementation of the strategic plan to tackle the over-visitation to Yala National Park and other national wildlife parks, while enhancing the quality of visitor experience. Despite two strategic plans being launched in 2015 and 2016 by DWC under the instructions of the then Tour
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Owing to climate change, natural disasters have become an almost commonplace occurrence in the world. Developing countries, especially island nations like Sri Lanka, are particularly prone to such disasters, due to two reasons: their geographical location, which is vulnerable to the rising sea levels and their limited capacity to adapt, due to the lack of access to financial resources and technologies.
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The latest move by the government to collect more revenue from people is the introduction of a carbon tax. Vehicle owners will have to pay a carbon tax based on the engine capacity and the year of manufacture of their vehicles from next year onwards. Older vehicles and those with bigger engines will be taxed more. Electric vehicles (EVs) have been exempted from the tax. According to the 2018 budget, the government expects to collect Rs.2.5 billio
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The International Air Travel Association (IATA) has renewed the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry of SriLankan Airlines for a further two year period up December 04, 2020, SriLankan Airlines in a statement said yesterday. IOSA is the global airline industry’s benchmark for an airline’s operational management and control systems.
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Mane SA, one of the top flavour and fragrance houses in the world, recently announced their strategic partnership with Sri Lanka’s Akbar Brothers, one of the largest traders of tea in the world, to provide high-end tea and coffee extracts for the global market. The partnership will take Ethical Extracts, a joint venture with Akbar Brothers, forward and is expe