The government yesterday slashed duties on vehicle imports and electronic items which will see a reduction of the prices of these goods in the near future. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Minister of Finance and Planning yesterday removed the 15% surcharge that had been imposed on commodity level imports and 50% custom duty on vehicle imports with immediate effect.

The rate at which prices increase dropped in March to 6.3 percent after increasing each month since reaching 0.7 percent in September 2009 as prices in the official index fell by Rs.387.86 from the previous month, data released by the Department of Census and Statistics showed.

The World Bank has approved a loan of 18 million US dollars to Sri Lanka to develop sustainable tourism, international trade minister Gamini Peiris said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently awarded 500 scholarships in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to youth in the North.

Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa has launched the second stage of a coal power complex built with Chinese financing which will add another 600 MegaWatt, the president's office said.

Amana Investments won the award for the category Best Islamic Bank in Sri Lanka in the 2009 Islamic Finance News Poll conducted by the Malaysian-based REDmoney Group.

Sri Lanka is sending a high level delegation of senior government officials to save a preferential trade deal which is due end later in 2010 and broader relations with the European Union, a senior minister said.

Sri Lanka should follow Malaysia's example in selling project specific bonds for infrastructure, which will give confidence that money is not mis-directed and make it easier to tap money for capital investment, a senior financial expert said.

Stock analysts are urging investor caution on speculative investment in Environmental Resources Investments (ERI) which announced firmed up plans to raise over two billion rupees in fresh equity soon.