Sri Lanka’s national consumer protection is to be led by an internationally accredited quality professional and a leading academic in management science. “With this appointment, we leverage your local and international experience for our consume

The budget proposal to give an increment of Rs.2, 500 to State sector employees is an interim measure, State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne said yesterday. The State Minister

In recognition of International Women’s Day, SriLankan Airlines operated its first all female crew flight from Colombo to Singapore and return. UL306 of 8th March ’19 landed in Singapore carrying more than 170 passengers onboard.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares fell to a near 5-1/2-year low yesterday as investors sold large cap stocks, outweighing purchases by foreigners. The Colombo Stock Exchange index settled 0.52 percent lower at 5,722.25, its lowest close since Se

HONG KONG (AFP) - Asian markets tanked and the euro struggled to recover yesterday as the European Central Bank’s decision to slash its growth and inflation forecasts added to increasing pessimism about the global outlook.

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

Sri Lanka sold $2.4 billion in five-year and 10-year U.S. dollar-denominated bonds on Friday, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters, successfully tapping the international markets at a time the country is facing strains on its finances.

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

The proposed luxury tax on vehicles will hinder the government’s ambitious target of collecting Rs.48 billion in revenue from duties, as the proposed tax would lead to drastic decline in vehicle imports to the country,

(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 Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) and Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed their intent to further collaborate in developing the information and communication technology (ICT) sector for sustainable emplo

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.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday walked a tightrope presenting his second budget, trying his best to balance people’s aspirations in the backdrop of impending elections while proposing

The country’s Finance Ministry should be empowered to deal with the ineffective director boards of the loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as notions of privatisation or public-private partnerships (PPPs) seem unrealistic, given the current

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,