Sri Lanka Business Confidence dropped by 39.6 % in Nov 2022, compared with a decrease of 44.0 % YoY in the previous month. Census and Economic Information Center (CEIC) announced.

Sri Lanka Business Confidence: YoY Change is updated monthly, available from May 2016 to Nov 2022, with an averaged rate of 0.4 %.The data reached an all-high of 74.0 % in Mar 2021 and a record low of -73.8 % in Mar 2020.

The Census and Economic Information Center (CEIC) is located within the Montana Department of Commerce, is part of the Research and Information Services Bureau (RIS) and is the official State Data Center SDC for the state.

CEIC calculates Business Confidence Change from monthy Purchasing Managers Index. Central Bank of Sri Lanka provides Purchasing Managers Index with range from 0 to 100 with neutral point 50. Business Confidence covers Manufacturing sector only.

Menwhile Business magazine LMD, in its latest edition, said that as 2022 ends: “the exclusive business barometer falls and withdraws its promise of hope.”

LMD continued: “As nitty-gritties with regard to the IMF bailout are still to be resolved – especially with regard to debt restructuring with Sri Lanka’s creditors and the implications of budget 2023 sink in – it would seem that corporates have retracted their optimism.”

The LMD-NielsenIQ Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell by as many as 12 basis points – from 98 in November to 86 a month later, the magazine reports.

It added that: “The business sentiment barograph is now an insurmountable 33 basis points away from where it stood in December 2021 (119); and one can only surmise its trajectory in the New Year.”

NielsenIQ Consumer Insights Director Therica Miyanadeniya in LMD asserted: “The end of 2022 is at hand and for the past two years, the calendar ended with hope for a better tomorrow. However, reflecting on the past three years, and the current state of affairs in the country, 2023 is very uncertain.”

LMD noted that the index is no way below March’s 132, the highest for 2022 – that was when business sentiment was high even at a time when the nation faced myriad challenges.

A spokesperson for LMD explained that: “Against the backdrop of uncertainty on many fronts, it could well be that the index will continue to fluctuate as business sentiment ebbs and flows between victories and defeats.”

“And the new year could get off to a rocky start as calls for local Government polls intensify, which may mean that political strife comes back on the radar, which in turn will pose new challenges to businesses and their viability,” she added.

Media Services, LMD’s publisher, says the January edition of the pioneering magazine will be released shortly, along with its digital version,

The government is planning to secure US $1 billion from jewellery exports in 2023 facilitating value addition of local gems, Minister of Industries and Plantations Ramesh Pathirana disclosed.

Participating as the Chief Guestat the opening ceremony of FACETS gems and jewellery exhibition in Colombo yesterday Minister Pathirana detailed the government’s plans for the gem and jewellery industry saying, “all technology and equipment related to value addition will be duty free.

A committee will also be appointed to facilitate a pension plan for gem miners and other related occupations, he added.

One of the most sought after international gem and jewellery shows on the global procurement and sourcing calendar, FACETS Sri Lanka Premier Edition was inaugurated by Minister of Industries and Plantations Ramesh Pathirana.

Hosted by Cinnamon Grand and organised by the National Gem & Jewellery Authority and Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association, FACETS Sri Lanka also signals that the island-country is ready and open for business.

In his welcome address, Chairman of SLGJA Ajward Deen stated that the Government of Sri Lanka must recognize the industry as a key forex earner. “The Government must be a facilitator towards the future continuance of this industry which most often is plagued by numerous and inefficient bureaucratic challenges which hinders its growth.

The incentives that have been eliminated recently should be reconsidered. The public-private sector partnership which is very much at the heart of this year’s exhibition, stands as testimony to a collaborative partnership which will benefit not just the industry, but the entire nation.”

Chairman FACETS Sri Lanka Altaf Iqbal emphasized two points about the exhibition; the fact that the exhibition signals to the world that Sri Lanka is ready and open for business and it being the first to example a solid and working public-private partnership.

“This is probably one of the rare instances where we see the government being the facilitator and the private sector being the driver, a paradigm that can be cascaded to other industries as well.”

The Sri Lanka Gem & Jewellery Association (SLGJA) is the apex private sector organisation representing the interests of all industry sub-sectors from mining through manufacturing, wholesale and retail. It organizes FACETS Sri Lanka in partnership with the National Gem and Jewellery Authority and the Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

In another drivel statement, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe claims that Sri Lanka is both externally and internally fragmented and the worst affected by the ‘post-Covid world.’

He was speaking at a Panel Discussion on ‘Strengthening Institutions for Sustainable Growth in the Post-COVID World’, held in New Delhi on Friday 06.

Externally, he said, giving an example of Iran being sanctioned by the US when Sri Lanka’s refinery uses Iran crude oil, but due to the sanction Sri Lanka had to stop buying oil from Iran.

Local media had given wide publicity to these observations made by the Central Bank Governor at the panel discussion.

Expressing dismay on these remarks made by Central Bank Governor Nandalal responsible for the people and who is bound to divulge the absolute truth, several energy experts said that there was no such requirement of using Iran crude only although the refinery was a gift from Iran.

It can use light crude oil with less sulfur and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation took measures to replace Iranian crude imports with alternative grades, including Oman crude, Saudi Arab Light or Malaysia’s Miri Light.

Sri Lanka now buys crude and refined products from countries such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam at a much higher price.

Even during the period of US sanctions imposed on Iran, the CPC was sourcing all its crude requirements from the spot market after its regular supply from Iran was cut, corporation sources said.

They said fuel purchases from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman were options available for Sri Lanka and it had started purchasing Saudi Arabian Light Oil instead of Iranian Light Oil in the recent past.

Sri Lanka is the latest Asian nation to accept Russian crude after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine prompted widespread condemnation and sanctions.

The Sapugaskanda refinery is using Siberian Light crude, a CPC official said, adding that it’s one of several grades of crude that our refinery can process, alongside Abu Dhabi’s Murban and Iranian Light oil.

Therefore the CB Governor should not make such comments without verifying facts as the whole world knows what is happening in Sri Lanka and its economic crisis triggered due to tools and policies adopted since 2020.

Speaking on the internal policies, he recalled Sri Lanka’s trade integration, where it was one of the first countries in Asia that opened the economy in 1977.

“We integrated with the region and the world at the beginning for several decades and then moved backwards due to internal policies and nationalistic protectionism. From an open economy we became a more protectionist closed economy which is one of the reasons why we are facing the crisis.”

But he has failed to mention about the introduction of policy tools by the Central Bank in 2020 by turning the whole monetary policy upside down following the verbal attack leveled at CB top officials including former Governor W D Lakshman and Senior Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on June 16 2020.

He told these officials “You have several tools that can be used. Those tools have to be utilized. However, our Central Bank does not use a single tool. It just stays idle.”

“Give me your suggestions on how to strengthen the economy, how to assist banks under these dire circumstances, and how to categorically assist small scale and medium scale businesses as soon as possible, ” he demanded.

As a response the Central Bank deployed an array of monetary policy tools in 2020, while being one of the first central banks in the world to ease monetary policy citing the outbreak of COVID-19.

These policies, including unconventional measures, were executed at an extraordinary pace, size, and scope, aimed at injecting sufficient liquidity into the market and lowering borrowing costs, thus supporting financial markets and the recovery.