By Gerard D. Muttukumaru In November 2011, with the Galleon Scandal in the headlines, I wrote an article “Do the Right Thing”. This has been picked up and published in the global media. At a recent speech I gave in Colombo attended by senior managers and professionals, one participant remarked to me: “We loved and [...]
By Chrishanthi Christopher International financial institutions say that Sri Lanka will sustain its growth momentum and manage its financial markets and trade flows for the next two years despite uncertainty in the euro zone. The Asian Development Bank(ADB) in its flagship annual economic publication the Asian Development Outlook 2012 (ADO 2012) says that for Sri [...]
The Netherlands sees an increase in bilateral trade with Sri Lanka expecting it to go up by nearly 30 percent. The Ambassador to the Netherlands L. W. M. Piet said that Dutch investment will be manifolded in industries like manufacturing, processing, health and fisheries and in infrastructure development. With Economic Diplomacy being the buzzword at [...]
Best ever financial performance in FY 2011 The People’s Bank(PB) has stormed its way into the top slot in the country’s banking industry creating history by posting a record LKR 21 billion profit last year. The bank attributes this success to the substantial increase in its gross interest income which expanded by 10 per cent [...]
Chrishanthi Christopher Economists concerned with the downward spiralling of the rupee against the U.S. dollar are calling on the government to ‘put its house in order’ to address the looming crisis. On Friday April 27 the rupee reached an all time high of Rs. 132.92 to the dollar causing concerns among both manufacturers and importers [...]
By Dinouk Colombage The International Monetary Fund has commended Sri Lanka’s on going policy tightening and commitment to policy flexibility. IMF resident representative, Koshy Mathai, suggested that while growth will slow down and inflation and cost of living will rise, the balance of payments and diminution of reserves should slow down. According to Mathai “a [...]
By Dr. Arujuna Sivananthan A bubble in economics refers to a period in which a product or asset is traded in high volumes at prices that are at significant variance with its intrinsic value. History is replete with examples including the Dutch Tulip Mania from 1634 to 1637, the French Mississippi Bubble in 1719-20 and [...]
By Paneetha Ameresekere With prospects of Sri Lanka striking oil seemingly looking good, an IMF official briefing reporters in Washington DC on Monday stressed the importance of emerging economies having an adequate, regulated financial framework to safeguard against the squandering of its natural resources (NR) from corruption and wastage. Rabah Arezki of the IMF Institute [...]
By Paneetha Ameresekere A stimulus package originally estimated at USD ($) one trillion needed to provide liquidity to markets has been scaled down due to signs of global economic recovery, an IMF official said. Bill Murray, IMF’s Media Relations Head speaking to reporters in Washington DC on Monday said that an IMF study has shown [...]
High budget deficits, debt, loss of market confidence By Paneetha Ameresekere Fiscal stimulus (money printing) worked in the USA, but not in the EU because in the case of the former, one was dealing with one sovereign government, whereas in the case of the latter, one was looking at several, an International Monitory Fund economist [...]
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