Economic

The Government is preparing to amend legislation and formulate an agreement with India to allow Employees Provident Fund (EPF) access to an estimated 10,000 Sri Lankan workers employed in India.

The Government is planning to roll out a special program to woo tourism-related investments, bundled with attractive incentives to encourage foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the post-COVID era.

The high-flying and world’s best performing last week Colombo stock market yesterday suffered its worst crash in history with Rs. 245 billion in value wiped off as investors and analysts pinned the blame on regulators whilst profit-taking contributed to the downfall too.

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) said yesterday the All Share Price Index (ASPI) has retained its position as the best performing primary stock market index in the world with the index closing trading on 5 February at 8,275.37 points, marking a 22.16% growth year-to-date (YTD).

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has reassured stockbrokers and investors that its recent Circular does not in any way place any restrictions on the ability of firms to extend credit on any particular security, nor has it placed any limitations of any kind on the tradability of any security by any investor.

Cabinet has approved amending the Industrial Disputes Act to enable disciplinary inquiries to be wrapped up within six months to aid dispute resolution and support the private sector, a top official said yesterday.

Aitken Spence Travels, the leading DMC in Sri Lanka working in partnership with TUI Kazakhstan, will welcome the country’s first charter from Kazakhstan on Saturday, 6 February after the airports reopened for tourist arrivals.

The Colombo Stock Market bounced back yesterday to close on a positive note after the worst crash in terms of loss of value on Tuesday.

The Government has approved a proposal by the Energy Ministry for the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to restart bunkering services.

The Colombo stock market yesterday gained but couldn’t prevent finishing the week on a negative note for first time 14 weeks.

A day after relaxing import restrictions on tiles and ceramic products, the Government yesterday did a U-turn to suspend the Gazette notification and continue import limits.

Sri Lanka Tourism has given priority for employees of ‘Safe and Secure’ certified accommodation providers and immediate stakeholders such as tour guides and drivers for the vaccination program of COVID-19.

The Indian High Commission yesterday clarified that Sri Lanka’s Central Bank had settled a $ 400 million swap from India as per an agreement in July 2020, dismissing reports that repayment had been demanded following the Government’s decision over the East Container Terminal (ECT).

The Attorney General (AG) has forwarded indictments against former Directors of Swarnamahal Financial Services PLC and Edirisinghe Trust investment (ETI) Finance ltd. for running a financial business without a license.

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (YOY) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100), decreased to 3% in January from 4.2% in December 2020.

The country’s tiles and bathware sector yesterday insisted that the tax and duty regime still tilts in favour of imports contrary to popular perception, and a revert to pre-2015 structure will ensure interest of all stakeholders, including importers and investors.

සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල විසින් කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළේ සිදුකර ඇති සමාගම් 6 ක කොටස් ආයෝජන මුළුමනින්ම විකුණා දැමීමට පියවර ගෙන ඇති බව වාර්තාවේ.සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල යනු මෙරට විශාලතම සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ අරමුදල වේ. ඒ අනුව අරමුදල විසින් ඒසීඑල් ප්ලාස්ටික්ස්, බලංගොඩ වැවිලි සමාගම, කෙමෙනෙක්ස්, එක්ස්පෝලංකා හෝල්ඩිංග්ස් සහ මල්වත්ත වැවිලි සමාගමේ ඡන්ද බලය හිමි හා නිෂ්ඡන්ද කොටස් මෙන්ම සෙලාන් ඩිවලොප්මන්ට්ස් යන ආයෝජනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම 2020 දෙසැම්බර් 31 න් අවසන් කාර්තුව තුළ දී විකුණා දමා ඇති බව වාර්තාවේ.

Dr. Coomaraswamy has over 40 years of experience in policy making and providing economic advisory services, on both macroeconomic and structural issues, at national and intergovernmental levels. Dr. Coomaraswamy served as the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka from July 2016 to December 2019.