ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange were trending up on Monday, CSE data showed, with the benchmark All Share Price Index moving up a marginal 0.10 percent.

The ASPI was up 20.11 points at 20,337.02, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was up 0.36 percent, or 20.95 points, at 5,809.70.

Positive contributors to the ASPI were Dialog Axiata (up 0.90 percent at 44.90 rupees), SMB Finance (up 10.00 percent at 1.10 rupees), LOLC Holdings (up 1.08 percent at 419.75 rupees), Vidullanka (up 3.26 percent at 22.20 rupees), and John Keells Holdings (up 2.17 percent at 18.80 rupees).

Hemas Holdings (down 1.96 percent at 30.00 rupees), John Keells Hotels (down 3.21 percent at 15.10 rupees), Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (down 0.20 percent at 50.90 rupees), and Prime Lands Residencies (down 1.91 percent at 35.90 rupees) were top negative contributors.

Market turnover was 54.93 million rupees. Capital goods led turnover with 25.77 million rupees.

Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC announced a first interim dividend of 40.30 rupees per ordinary share for the financial year ending March 31, 2027. The total dividend payout amounts to 3.224 billion rupees, with the entitlement date set for October 21, 2026. (Colombo/Oct12/2026)

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will inaugurate the Sri Lanka Economic & Investment Summit 2026 on 12 October, at the Shangri-La Colombo, organisers The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said.

The two-day summit will feature senior business leaders, policymakers and international experts discussing Sri Lanka’s economic priorities and investment prospects.

This year’s Summit focuses on the next stage of Sri Lanka’s economic development – sustaining growth beyond stabilisation, attracting investment, strengthening regional trade links and developing new sources of economic activity.

The two-day programme on 12 and 13 October will address issues ranging from economic resilience and regional value chains to healthcare, energy and the role of digital technology in national development.

Keynote speakers include Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, T Krishnakumar, Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, alongside senior representatives from the Asian Development Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Zydus Lifesciences and the International Finance Corporation. (Colombo/Oct12/2026)

ECONOMYNEXT — Sri Lanka’s CIC Holdings said its associate company, Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka (Private) Limited, was not part of a regional divestment announced recently.

Akzo Nobel NV recently disclosed that it plans to sell its South East Asia Decorative Paints business to Nippon Paint Holdings Co, Ltd.

“Akzo Nobel N.V. has confirmed that the proposed divestment does not include Akzo Nobel N.V.’s stake in ANPL which remains outside the scope of the transaction,” CIC Holdings said in a market filing.

Akzo Nobel NV holds 50.63 percent of the issued voting shares of Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka (Private) Limited through Imperial Chemical Industries Limited.

AkzoNobel said last week it had entered into agreements to sell its Decorative Paints business in seven countries, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Australia, to Nippon Paint for around 1.35 billion dollars. (Colombo/Oct12/2026)

ECONOMYNEXT – The local distributor of China’s BYD says it plans to sell 3,000 RACCO units in Sri Lanka over the next year, as consumers shift to electric vehicles which provide lower operating expenses compared to fossil fuel alternatives.

“With RACCO, BYD is entering the KEI car segment in Sri Lanka, a category that is already very popular with Sri Lankan buyers,” John Keells CG Auto Chief Executive Officer Charith Panditharatne said.

Kei cars are a category of ultra-compact vehicles engineered in Japan to meet strict dimensions, taking up less road and parking space.

John Keells CG Auto (JKCG) launched the BYD RACCO electric Kei car in Sri Lanka at an introductory price of 11.45 million rupees.

Sri Lanka is the first market outside Japan to introduce the model, following its debut there in July, Charitha Subasinghe, retail head of John Keells Holdings, said.

The vehicle was launched simultaneously across showrooms in Colombo, Kandy, and Galle to ensure immediate island-wide access.

Compact Japanese cars have long dominated Sri Lanka’s vehicle market, with 9,550 Suzuki Wagon-R units and 1,870 Suzuki Spacia units registered in the year to August 2026.

“At its heart, RACCO is a family vehicle: it is cost-effective to own and run, yet highly specified to meet a household’s daily needs and the demands of small businesses,” Panditharatne said.

In Japan, the entry-level RACCO 200 sells for 2.145 million yen, or roughly 4.5 million Sri Lankan rupees, with over 1,500 units already sold.

In Sri Lanka, however, imported vehicles face heavy taxes following currency depreciation and balance-of-payments pressures.

BYD has become the country’s leading electrified vehicle brand since the market reopened, with around 15,000 BYD vehicles now on local roads, according to Ketsu Zhang, Deputy General Manager of BYD’s Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Division. (Colombo/Oct10/2026)

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves fell 1.1 percent to US$ 6,851 million by the end of September 2026, down from 6,929 million dollars a month earlier amid central bank purchasing US$64.2  million on a net basis in the month.

The Central Bank has been aggressively buying dollars to boost the reserves. 

Analysts say the Central Bank’s year end reserve target of US$8 billion is achievable with the dollar inflows from the IMF and other multilateral institutions in the final quarter of 2026. 

The Central Bank sold dollars in May amid sharp depreciation of the rupee currency that month

The Bank sold over US$211 million net in May, marking the first net selling in 22 months.

The Central Bank has net bought US$1,548.8 million in the first nine months of 2026 following a net purchase of US$2 billion last year.

The rupee was under high downward pressure in May as the imports bill for fuel rose unusually high following the Middle Eastern escalation amid continued demand for dollars to buy new vehicles.

However, it reversed course and gained in the next two months before falling in September.

The Central Bank has been buying dollars aggressively from the market to boost foreign currency reserves to meet the targets the country agreed with the IMF under the US$3 billion external fund facility and to repay the island nation’s multilateral and bilateral loans.

The Central Bank in May raised its Overnight Policy Rate amid heavy depreciation of the currency.

The Central Bank’s aggressive reserve building comes ahead of the repayment of foreign debts to sovereign bond holders. This repayment is scheduled to start from April 2028.

After successfully exiting sovereign default through a debt restructuring agreement and securing an IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, Sri Lanka has been rebuilding its reserves to meet key targets for macroeconomic stability.

For debt repayment, adequate reserves are essential to meet upcoming external obligations without resorting to new borrowing or accumulating arrears.

While Sri Lanka has made significant progress in restructuring bilateral and commercial debts, any sustained erosion of reserves raises concerns about its ability to sustain the recovery trajectory and fully normalize relations with international markets.

Analysts say policymakers will likely need to focus on boosting export earnings, attracting foreign investment, and prudent fiscal management to reverse the decline and safeguard the hard-won gains from the IMF-supported programme. (Colombo/October 11/2026)

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has spent less than 30 percent of 2026 capital spending, two government sources said, with the government expects to fully utilize it before the end of this year.

Sri Lanka has allocated Rs.1,380 billion for 2026 capital spending, but has spent only around Rs.385 billion through the first nine months of the year, two government sources familiar with the details told EconomyNext.

Sri Lanka’s chronic failure to utilize its full budgetary allocations for capital investment reflects deep-rooted structural inefficiencies in public financial management and project execution, analysts and economists say.

They warn of lower economic growth in the future if the government fails to implement its planned capital investment projects.

The government has repeatedly said most of the spending occurs in the last quarter of the year.

Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said on Tuesday (06) that 70 percent of the spending is finalized in November and the government is unable to give an update on the total spending as of that day.

Year after year, bureaucratic delays, protracted procurement disputes, politicized project selection, and a lack of technical expertise within line ministries leave a significant portion of capital expenditure unspent on the Treasury books.

This capital under-utilization carries severe long-term repercussions for the island’s economic trajectory.

By failing to deploy allocated funds into critical infrastructure such as transport networks, modernized power grids, and digital public systems, Sri Lanka suffers from lower productivity growth and worsening structural bottlenecks as well as a decline in overall gross domestic product (GDP) potential.

In a fragile post-default macroeconomic climate, this persistent shortfall also sends a negative signal to international development partners and private investors.

It demonstrates an institutional inability to absorb capital effectively, thereby stalling the very structural transformation required to safely out-grow a historic debt burden.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has promised to change the process to fast-track the spending, but the move is yet to materialise, analysts say. (Colombo/October 11/2026)