Economic

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100)1 increased to 5.4 per cent in January 2020 from 4.8 per cent in December 2019. This was driven by monthly ncrease of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased substantially to a 25-month high of 11.7 per cent in January 2020 from 6.3 per cent in December 2019, while Non-food inflation (Y-o-Y) stood at 2.9 per cent, Central Bank announced. 

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් ඉන්දියාවට ආනයනය කරන ගම්මිරිස් කි.ග්‍රෑම් එකක උපරිම සිල්ලර මිල ඩොලර් 2.75 ක් ලෙස සීමාවක් පැනවීම නිසා ඉදිරි අප්‍රේල් – ජූනි ගම්මිරිස් අස්වනු සමයේදී බරපතල අර්බුදයක් ඇති වන බව ක්ශේ ත්‍ර යේ විශේෂඥයින් ප්‍රකිශ කර ඇත.

කොරෝනා වෛරසය මේ වන විට ගෝලීය වසංගත රෝග තත්ත්වයක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. අද (27) වන විට මෙම වෛරසය හේතුවෙන් චීනයේ වූහාන් ප්‍රාන්තය තුළ මියගිය ගණන 80 ක් දක්වා ඉහළ ගොස් තිබේ. එසේම චීනය පුරා විවිධ නගර ගණනාවකින් මෙම වෛරසය ආසාදිත වූ බවට හඳුනා ගෙන ඇති පිරිස 3,000කට ආසන්න වේ. වාර්තා වන අන්දමට ගොදුරු වී ඇති වයසින් අඩුම පුද්ගලයා බවට සඳහන් වන්නේ බීජිං නුවර නව හැවිරිදි දැරියකි.

In the long-term, the Sri Lanka Remittances is projected to trend around 750.00 USD Million in 2020, according to econometric models.

Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday said steps had already been taken to create awareness to reduce the coronavirus outbreak among tourism industry stakeholders. Accordingly, the Tourism and Health Ministries are working closely to combat the spread of the coronavirus within all tourist hotspots of the country.

C Confluence, a forum organised by the four premier chartered bodies in the fields of accountancy, marketing, human resources and logistics, will be held at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo today.

The Central Bank yesterday joined the stimulus bandwagon, cutting policy rates hot on the heels of tax cuts and a debt relief package from the Government earlier on, as a further support to kick-start the economy.

Warns borrowers may still struggle unless macroeconomic environment improves by year-end
Expects GDP to increase to 3.5% in 2020
Says much loan restructuring has already taken place
Restructured loans grew to 3.6% of gross loans from 1.8% at 2018-end

The Government is keen to increase Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to $ 2.5 billion and exports to $ 13.5 billion this year aided by improved policy stability, business confidence, tax cuts and a wide-ranging stimulus package.

Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe yesterday urged that boosting exports must be everyone’s priority, as the key agency set an ambitious yet achievable target of $ 18.5 billion this year, up by 15% from 2019. EDB revealed that as per provisional data, last year Sri Lanka’s total merchandise and service exports amounted to $ 16.14 billion up by 1.44% from 2018. The composition was merchandise exports were $ 11.9 billion, up 0.13% and service exports were $ 4.2 billion, up by 5.3% from 2018. EDB originally targeted $ 18.5 billion exports for 2019, and the estimated performance reflects achievement of 87% of the goal.

Exclusive and comprehensive luxury transport solutions provider Transcend Drive, recently partnered with the Cinnamon Future of Tourism Summit (FOT) that was held in Colombo.

ජපානයේ ඉහළ පෙළේ ආයෝජකයින් වන Mr.Yukio kawageo, Mr Hasegawa jun , Mr.Nakada Hiroyuki යන මහත්වරුන් ඇතුළු පිරිසක් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පසුගිය 22 දා හමු වූ අවස්ථාවයි මේ.

Leading global payments and technology services provider, Mastercard, bestowed Sri Lanka the honour of becoming the first market in South Asia to be added to its prestigious Priceless Cities program.

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry rapidly recovering from the Easter Terror last year is facing another blow following he outbreak of corona-virus in China as the country will be loosing eminent upsurge in Chinese travellers in the island during the coming months, travel agents said.

Forensic audit report on bond scam has exposed explosive findings on irregular investments allegedly made on the directions of the then Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal during the period 207 to 2015.

විදුලි සංදේශ සේවා සඳහා රජය ලබාදුන් බදු සහන ඉකුත් දෙසැම්බර් මස පළමු වැනිදා සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක බව විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාව පවසනවා.

Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) – the premier IT industry body of Sri Lanka – intends to achieve US$ 5 billion in IT/software exports by 2022.

A special team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be arriving in Sri Lanka by March this year to reach a staff-level understanding on the seventh and final review on the US$1.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), official sources said.