Dimuthu Abeyesekera appointed chairman of Sri Lanka’s CSE

Monday June 23, 2025 10:17 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Dimuthu Abeyesekera has been appointed chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Abeyesekera, who has served on the CSE Board for 6 years, is a veteran capital market professional with over 35 years of industry experience.

He replaces Dilshan Wirasekara, who stepped down upon completion of his three-year tenure.

He currently serves as Director/CEO of Asha Securities Ltd, which is affiliated with Phillip Capital Singapore, a global financial services group. (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 12:19 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s government has issued a statement on the Israel-Iran war calling on “all parties to take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East region”.

“Sri Lanka is gravely concerned about the latest developments in the Middle East,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism said.

“We continue to call upon all parties to take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation.

“All concerned parties should return to dialogue and engage in intense diplomatic efforts to establish and maintain peace with a view to ensuring stability in the Middle East region.”

The boilerplate text message used vague terms and did not name any of the countries involved.

A previous statement by the foreign ministry on the unprovoked attack by Israel on Iran, drew criticism from an opposition legislator, who slammed it as “A very unprincipled, unwise, and unimaginative statement”.

“Rather than issuing this statement it is better if they had issued no statement at all,” Rauff Hakeem told parliament.

“They don’t denounce the attack, they don’t name the attacker, they don’t even mention the principles of the UN Charter, international law, the principles of non-alignment.”

Read more
Sri Lanka foreign ministry trying to please western world: legislator

“Our foreign ministry doesn’t have the backbone to name the perpetrators.” (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 12:00 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals from June 1-18 increased 12 percent from a 66,522 a year ago to 74,570, with visitors from India forming the largest contingent, data from the island’s tourism promotion office showed.

There were 22,000 visitors from India, followed by 6,158 from the UK, and 4,789 from China.

There were 4,515 visitors from Bangladesh.

Total visitors so far this year are 1,104,373. (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 11:31 am

ECONOMYNEXT- The price of Murban crude, the preferred oil used in Sri Lanka’s refinery has moved above Brent crude in recent days as Israel attacks on Iran continued with the US also joining the battle.

Murban crude was quoted around 78.49 US dollars a barrel, higher than the Brent price of 77.85 dollars on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s refinery needs light crudes to produce adequate amounts of diesel and petrol.

The refinery was built to refine Iranian light but after US sanctions Sri Lanka had to find alternative crudes to feed the refinery. (Colombo/June23/2025)