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China’s financial crisis:
‘No impact on Sri Lanka’
The financial crisis in China will not have an
adverse impact on the Sri Lankan economy due to our exports to China
being negligible, Director and CEO, SMB Securities (Pvt) Ltd., Nadun
Jayathilake told Sunday Observer Business. The financial crisis has
already become a cliché but what happened on Black Monday, August
24, cannot be taken lightly. Although the financial markets have
somewhat recovered across the globe, hundreds of billions of dollars
were wiped off from the world’s financial markets as the Chinese
rout sent shares tumbling in Europe, Asia and the USA. Since
countries such as the USA and Australia conduct trade with China in
terms of dollars, the Sri Lankan economy is not so vulnerable.
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Tea industry:
High production costs impact competitiveness - TEA
The tea export industry has achieved US$ 1.6
billion with an export volume of 320 million kilos last year.
Although the government’s effort to increase revenue from tea to US$
5 billion by 2020 is a challenging target under the current global
tea market, the Tea Exporters Association (TEA) has already
developed strategies to reach a year-on-year growth of 25% to
achieve this target.
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No artificial devaluation of the rupee - Ravi K
Sri Lanka’s newly appointed Finance Minister
Ravi Karunanayake said an artificial devaluation of the rupee will
not be allowed and he will push for low interest rates in the
future.“We have to face the realistic world situation, but that does
not mean that we will artificially devalue the rupee,” Karunanayake
said. “We are not blind to external forces.”The Central Bank allowed
the rupee to float last Friday, with reduced intervention and by not
indicating a daily reference rate. As a result the rupee depreciated
to 137.50/138.00 on Friday from 134.75 on Thursday.
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Small rice mills and proper storage facilities vital
More smallholder rice mills with proper rodent
and moisture-free storage facilities are vital to bring about a
win-win situation for paddy farmers and consumers who constantly
grapple with prices, agri experts said.Providing facilities to set
up small rice mills across the country and good storage facilities
will help solve the recurring problem of prices to a great extent.
Farmers clamour for a better price for the produce while consumers
want prices to be reasonable. The guaranteed price for rice is
between Rs. 30-45.
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Increased levy will push up prices, say importers
Sugar and canned fish importers are concerned
over the sudden increase in the import levy on sugar from Rs. 18 to
Rs. 30 per kilogram this week, canned fish earlier, and the
depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee by 4% which will have an upward
price revision.
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