Sri Lanka parliament passes budget for 2026

Friday November 14, 2025 6:34 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka parliament has passed a budget for 2026, speaker Jagath Wickramaratne said.

The budget was passed with 160 voting for and 42 against.

There were 8 abstentions from the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), a party in the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) coalition, voted in favour of the budget.

“We are supporting this budget because it has increased the plantation workers’ daily wage to 1,750 rupees,” Mano Ganeshan told the parliament.

Anil Jayantha, Deputy Finance Minister, before the vote said the budget will further ensure the fiscal discipline in the country. (Colombo/November 14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 8:23 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka is rolling out 20 additional self check-in counters at its main Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) through the ground handling service provider of state-run SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier said in a statement.

Airport and Ground Services, the sole ground services provider at BIA) is in the process of rolling out its self-check-in service for passengers of customer airlines ahead of the winter travel high season, which is expected to bring over 300,000 tourists to the island in December alone.

“The initiative, made possible by the airline’s IT team, follows the installation of 20 new self-check-in kiosks at the departure terminal last month, bringing the total to 28 and boosting airport efficiency and the overall passenger experience in line with Sri Lanka’s tourism development efforts,” SriLankan said in a statement.

“Since its launch in 2023, the self-check-in kiosk facility has seen a strong uptake, with an increasing number of travellers opting for self-service over traditional counters. Currently, 15% of SriLankan’s passengers flying out of BIA use the kiosks, helping ease congestion at the departure terminal.”

The facility has enabled passengers to bypass queues and complete their check-in independently by selecting seats, printing boarding passes and generating bag tags in just a few simple steps.

Our enhanced self-check-in facilities will further support the airport’s capacity enhancement efforts, while reaffirming SriLankan Airlines’ prominent position in advancing digital airport solutions in the region,” Deepal Pallegangoda, Head of Airport and Ground Services of SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.

“Singapore Airlines is set to be the first foreign carrier to adopt the self-check-in kiosk facility for their passengers flying from Colombo, and we hope to see more airlines come onboard soon.”

Sri Lanka’s main gateway, BIA in Katunayake, has undergone several expansions to keep pace with the country’s tourism and aviation recovery ambitions.

As of 2025, the airport’s current operational passenger handling capacity stands at approximately 9–10 million passengers per annum across its three terminals (Terminal 1: 6 million, Terminal 2: 1.5 million, Terminal 3: 2 million).

The airport handled a peak of 10.7 million passengers in 2018 and is now targeting 15 million passengers per year once the ongoing terminal expansion and new apron works are fully commissioned by 2027–2028.

In the first nine months of 2025, BIA recorded over 8.1 million passengers, reflecting a strong rebound and operating close to its current maximum capacity during peak seasons.(Colombo/November 14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 5:30 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has sold 8,000 million rupees of bonds offered on tap at the average rates set at an auction last week, bringing the total of bonds sold in the week to 88 billion, data from the central bank’s Public Debt Department showed.

The debt office sold a 1 July 2030 maturity bond (LKB00530G018) at a weighted average yield rate of 9.56 percent.

The debt office sold a 15 June 2035 maturity bond (LKB01035F159) at a weighted average yield rate of 10.69 percent.

On Thursday, 80 billion rupees in 2030 and 2035 bonds were sold.

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Sri Lanka sells Rs80bn in 2030, 2035 bonds

Total market subscription was 10,718 million rupees.

Settlement date is November 17. (Colombo/Nov14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 4:57 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s rupee closed at 306.90/307.20 to the US dollar in the spot market Friday, weaker from 305.50/90 the previous day, dealers said, while bond yields closed broadly steady.

A bond maturing on 15.12.2026 closed at 8.10/20 percent, up from 8.10/15 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.02.2028 closed at 8.95/9.02 percent, up from 8.85/90 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.09.2029 closed at 9.43/49 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.12.2029 closed at 9.44/50 percent, up from 9.40/45 percent.

A bond maturing on 01.07.2030 closed at 9.54/60 percent, up from 9.54/57 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.12.2032 closed at 10.20/26 percent, up from 10.18/22 percent.

A bond maturing on 01.11.2033 closed at 10.38/45 percent, up from 10.38/42 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.06.2035 closed at 10.68/71 percent, from 10.68/73 percent. (Colombo/Nov14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 4:21 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Hayleys Plc, which has interests in export, manufacturing, retail, logistics, leisure, and energy grew 35 percent to 2.39 billion rupees in the September 2025 quarter, from a year ago amid a surge in revenue, interim accounts show.

The group reported earnings per share of 3.19 rupees for the quarter.

During the six months up to end September, the company’s earnings were 5.20 rupees, on total profits of 3.9 billion rupees, which grew 23 percent.

In the September quarter, Hayleys group revenues grew 13 percent, 138.9 billion; and cost of sales also grew at 13 percent to 104.7 billion.

Direct interest cost jumped 56 percent to 1.5 billion.

Gross profits gained 13 percent to 32.6 billion rupees.

Consumer and retail sector earnings led Hayleys net in the six months through end September with 6.1 billion rupees followed by transportation, logistics at 3.1 billion rupees, and hand production at 2.2 billion rupees.

The company last month said it intends to set up a retail chain with 100 outlets as part of a diversification into retail, a statement said.

The company last month also made a mandatory offer to purchase 1,140,654 ordinary voting shares, constituting 59.42% of issued shares, of Harishchandra Mills PLC.

Hayleys stock closed down 1.5 percent at 194.75 rupees on Friday. (Colombo/November 14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 4:17 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Colombo Stock Exchange’s indices dipped after the opening bell for the second consecutive day, data on its site showed.

Despite the indices’ recovery in the latter part of the session, they ended marginally down.

The All Share Price Index (ASPI) fell 0.01 percent, or 1.71 points to 23,459.75 on Friday. The index was dragged down by some financial and capital goods stocks.

Meanwhile, the more liquid S&P SL20 index closed 0.34 percent, or 22.22 points lower at 6,435.93.

Top negative contributors to the ASPI were Melstacorp (down 3.75 rupees at 187.75), Sampath Bank (down 2.25 rupees at 148.00), Diesel & Motor Engineering Plc (down 187.25 rupees at 2,253.25 rupees), Hayleys (down 3 rupees at 194.75), and Richard Pieris and Company (down 1 rupee at 41.50).

Market turnover fell from 6.4 billion rupees to 5.6 billion, while share volume was 218,788,532.

Dipped Products, a rubber glove manufacturer’s net profit was at 920 million rupees in the September 2025 quarter from a year ago, amid higher administrative cost, the company’s interim accounts showed.

The stock ended 0.30 rupees higher at 64.00.

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Ceylon Tobacco Company has said that its volumes were down in the September 2025 quarter from a year ago, in the wake of higher taxes in 2025 which led to a price increase.

CTC stock dipped 2.50 rupees on Friday to close at 1,698.50.

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Worldwide, stock markets fared poorly.

“World stock markets took a beating on Friday as a hawkish tone from Federal Reserve officials doused hopes for a December U.S. rate cut, while a still-messy data calendar and worries about an AI bubble added to the angst,” Reuters said.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.77 percent as investors “locked in gains in heavyweight technology shares following losses by their US counterparts,” Japan’s The Mainichi newspaper said.

Technology related shares dropped on Wall Street amid concerns over rate cuts by the US Federal government being slow in the future, Mainichi quoted brokers as saying.

However, Pakistan’s KSE 100 index was trading 0.64 percent higher at 161,681.31.

Meanwhile, India’s Nifty 50 index moved 0.12 percent higher to close at 25,910.05, while the BSE Sensex moved 0.100 percent down to 84,562.78. (Colombo/Nov14/2025)

Friday November 14, 2025 2:56 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Sanasa Life Insurance is looking to raise 522 million rupees through a rights issue of shares at 10 rupees each to improve the company’s solvency position.

It said in a stock exchange filing that it will issue 52,267,278 ordinary shares at a ratio of one for every two held by each shareholder.

“The funds raised through the Rights Issue, after deducting the costs of the Rights Issue, will be utilized for investments that will improve the solvency position of the Company,” the statement said.

The issue is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
(Colombo/Nov14/2025)