Economic

Access Engineering PLC, the Balance of Plant (BOP) subcontractor of the Mannar Wind Power Plant, is nearing the completion of the scope of work assigned for this ambitious project which is a flag bearer to drive Sri Lanka to a future of clean renewable energy.

The Colombo stock market gathered more momentum yesterday with indices hitting new recent highs on improved turnover.

The Colombo stock market began a fresh week on a negative note as analysts pinned it on the fuel hike and its impact weighing-in on investor sentiment.

මෙරට විදේශ සංචිත ප්‍රමාණය ශක්තිමත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා කඩිනම් පියවර ගත යුතු බව ආර්ථික විද්‍යාඥයින් පවසනවා. එසේ නොවුනහොත් ඉදිරියේදී තවත් ගැටළු මතුවිය හැකි බවයි ඔවුන්ගේ අදහස වන්නේ.

මෙරට විදේශ සංචිත ප්‍රමාණය කඩිනමින් වැඩි කර නොගතහොත් රට ආර්ථික ගැටලු රැසකට මුහුණපානු ඇති බව ශ්‍රී ජයවර්ධනපුර විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ව්‍යාපාර ආර්ථික විද්‍යා අංශයේ මහාචාර්ය ජනක් කුමාරසිංහ පවසනවා. මෙරට විදේශ සංචිත ගැටලුව හේතුවෙන් ඉදිරියේදී විදේශයන්ගෙන් ණය ගැනිමට යාමේදි පවා වැඩි කොන්දෙසී ප්‍රමාණයකට යටත් වීමට සිදු විය හැකි බවයි ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ.

Not linked to the fuel hike but for sheer survival, the full cream milk powder importers are urging for a 37% increase in price, first in two years, a formal request for which the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has not yet responded favourably.

The Central Bank has made a formal ‘Recovery Plan’ mandatory for all commercial and specialised banks from next year.

Says withdrawal of GSP+ status for SL will reflect a 12% increase in export cost to EU and an “extremely difficult” trade shift
JAAF asserts it will not dictate any terms, hopeful Govt. will respond positively

The call for an LPG price hike that was made a few months ago becomes inevitable following the upward revision in fuel prices on Saturday, industry analysts said.

The Central Bank said yesterday the country’s gross official reserves stood at $ 4.5 billion at end-April, which provided an import cover of 3.1 months.

CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe and HIPG CEO Johnson Liu with the MoU as Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila looks on

The Export Development Board (EDB) yesterday expressed concerns over the resolution adopted by the European Union (EU) Parliament calling on the EU Commission to consider the temporary withdrawal of Sri Lanka’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status and the benefits that come with it.

The trade deficit widened more in April to $ 889 million as against $ 832 million in March as robust imports despite restrictions dwarfed the best-ever April export performance.

Fitch Ratings said yesterday it has affirmed Sri Lanka’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘CCC’.

Economist Nishan de Mel has said that increasing the cost of cigarettes rather than fuel prices would make better economic sense.

The French naval group, comprising 745 officers and personnel, left the country last week after completing an incident-free tour of Sri Lanka.

SPAR International, in a statement, said that three-quarters of the Sri Lankan goods that were exported recently to SPAR Oman under the initiative by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oman had been sold after just 15 days, highlighting the demand and success of this initiative.

Despite travel restrictions, motorists rushed before midnight to fuel sheds to top up their tanks ahead of the price hike. Here, motorists at the LAUGFS 24-hour station at Koswatte whilst some of the 24x7 outlets of CPC and Lanka IOC, including the latter's flagship at Colombo 7, were conveniently kept closed to make a quick gain later on, much to the disappointment of their regular customers