OSLO (AFP) - Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest and which is fuelled by petrodollars, will dump stakes in oil and gas exploration and production companies to reduce its exposure to black gold, the government said yesterday. While

(Hong Kong / Colombo) REUTERS: Sri Lanka sold US$ 2.4 billion in five-year and 10-year U.S. dollar-denominated bonds yesterday, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters, successfully tapping the international markets at a time the country is facing

Women in the country’s workforce were paid a tribute at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday with the traditional ringing of the trading bell—a gesture by the corporate Sri Lanka to celebrate the Inte

Doubts were cast during a budget forum yesterday on the government’s ability to honour interest payments stemming from its much touted ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ subsidy loan scheme to the country’s banking sector,

The International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) yesterday in a statement congratulated the government for maintaining policy consistency and continuing on its economic reforms agenda in the Budget 2019 presented on Tuesday. ICCSL Chairman Din

(Hong Kong) REUTERS: Sri Lanka launched the sale of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds yesterday and orders topped US$3 billion, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. It was not immediately cl

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during February rose 7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 252, 033, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said in a brief note. In February last year, 235,618 tourists visited Sri Lanka.

The Tea Exporters Association (TEA) yesterday said the proposals in Budget 2019 were “somewhat below the expectations of tea exporters”. “The reduction of the Economic Service Charge from 0.50 percent to 0.25 percent would certainly benefit the

Sri Lanka’s dull urbanisation rate, estimated by the United Nations, is to be at 18-18.2 percent, while the country’s Megapolis Ministry claims it to be at 42 percent, according to Indocean Developers (Pvt.) Ltd Director Pradeep Moraes. The real

The government debt to GDP is estimated to have risen sharply to the highest levels since 2005, to 83.6 percent of GDP by end-2018, from 77.6 percent of GDP recorded at end-2017, according to the provisional figures released by the

Sri Lanka’s premier business chamber, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), yesterday identified Budget 2019 as a “more realistic budget”, given the current political and economic situation of the country. “The 2019 national budget proposes a

The Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA), which represents all major international vehicle manufacturers in Sri Lanka, yesterday offered its assistance to the government to properly impose the luxury tax proposed in the budget presented on Tuesday

Sri Lanka raised duties on vehicles across the board and imposed a heavy luxury tax on certain models as the government used increasing number of motorcars on congested roads to shore up its revenues by a mammoth Rs.48 billion.

The government yesterday announced plans to further raise taxes on the so-called sin industries—alcohol, tobacco and gaming, as it unveiled a broadly welfare-oriented budged, targeting the forthcoming elections.

Sri Lanka will ban foreign construction companies undertaking government projects without a partnership with a local entity, unless the project is fully financed by foreign parties.

Sri Lanka’s premier blue chip John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) is back on the MCSI Frontier Markets 100 Index after being dropped in June, last year, largely due to the low daily turnover volume and general lacklustre conditions prevailed at the Colo

REUTERS: Nasdaq Inc. yesterday sweetened its offer to buy Norway-based exchange operator Oslo Bors to 158 Norwegian krones per Oslo Bors share from 152 Norwegian krones.

Sampath Bank PLC has announced plans to raise Rs.12.1 billion in a seven for 23 rights issue, as the lender attempts to bolster its core capital, barely a year after it raised a similar amount in a rights issue.

As the economic significance of data increases day by day, Sri Lanka plans to introduce legal amendments to the statistic law of the country, to share the data gathered by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) with the private sector, aiming

The work on the proposed export processing zone (EPZ) in Bingiriya was inaugurated by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday. The zone, which is set to spread across 1200 acres,

The government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, to be in line with the deficit target of 3.5 percent of GDP set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2020.

The note under reference hopefully will help the government to boost exports out of Sri Lanka and formulate policies for potential sectors to collectively go beyond a US $ 25 billion export economy and perhaps retain a surplus after debt redemption i

As Sri Lanka continues to perform below the potential in making finance accessible to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), compared to the nations with similar economic status, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) last week pledged it would continue to s

National Agency for Public-Private Partnership Chairman Thilan Wijesinghe last week said the government may want to revisit the already enacted privatisation agreements, including that of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), as there were fundamental flaws in t

ICRA Lanka Limited, a group company of Moody’s Investors Service, has further revised down the rating of debt-saddled construction firm MTD Walkers and also suspended the rating of the company.

Sri Lanka’s inflation in its capital Colombo rose to 4 percent in February on a year-on-year basis, from 3.7 percent in January, the data released by the Census and Statistics Department showed.

(Colombo) REUTERS: Sri Lankan Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s 2019 budget next week will attempt to stick to the fiscal targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while raising spending on farmers and public servants to woo voters

(New Delhi) REUTERS: Johnson & Johnson has resumed production of its baby powder at plants in India after the government tests found no asbestos in the product, the company said on Thursday.

One of the lowest provincial contributors to the national GDP, Sri Lanka’s Northern Province is to be linked to the export supply chain –and not by the Province’ manufacturing output but more so by leveraging an abundant resource, the robust yo

The 17th Annual K. Sivagananathan Memorial Awards and oration will be held on March 11th. This Annual Memorial Oration and Awar