Current Market Situation

[Pericles]

The puppet was on TV claiming that economic growth has dropped from 6% to 2%, but that its expected to reach 5% next year. Apparently based on the contributions of the East. Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

[isam]

The puppet was on TV claiming that economic growth has dropped from 6% to 2%, but that its expected to reach 5% next year. Apparently based on the contributions of the East. Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

East will require massive investments, there seems to be no source for it yet. Pitty, the government has forgotten it too!

[xXx]

Sri Lanka has long been in trouble when it comes to foreign reserves, which allows us the capacity to buy from foreign countries. Historically, SL kept foreign reserves sufficient for 6 months imports. But, this limit could not be maintained due to our high import to export ratio. Main contributors for this are the industrial imports and vehicle imports. If you look at the CB report a massive figure is spent on importing industrial raw materials. Since limiting industrial imports is a like suicide to the economy, government tried to discourage vehicle imports by jacking up the taxes.

you are correct. but i believe imports should be restricted after providing an alternative. either the government need to boost the public transport sector or they need to help make automobile locally. neither of these have taken place. only time this took place was with commercial buses in late 90's. paving way for local producers like LAL and Tata/Latec to dominate.

governments have been using the word 'protectionism' simply to sugar cote things. latest trend has been 'save the environment' bandwagon. JHU frontman has introduced several environmental levies in the past year alone. can anyone name one single successful project launched from this money to save the environment????

anyway with the dose of reality i see this tread has died down

[Edward]

Hi Guys,

I had a good offer for my N16 one month ago, I immediatly sold it. I think I made the right decision. Still not found another one to buy. The preferance is corolla ( registered one) Since the market started to fall, I thought to wait patiently for a good buy. Today,s paper says the Central bank is going to lift the 100% margin deposit requirement against letters of credit for the import of selected categories of motor vehcles, with effect from April 18th. Will this help to reduce the present car prices? can I wait for another month or two? please advice.

[kotte mafia]

hey it seems this is drifting away from the topic to another totally different subject any how it seems all this are inter-connected and i would love to give my humble opinion about this matter ... i'm not a analyst or a specialist on either economics nor politic is but I feel even though those chinthanaya blokes finally manage to finish the war and bring some peace to the country if there's no clear agenda about the economy and the development of srilanka ..When the next general elections come the party who has a clear vision on the economy and development of the country will win with a land slide and all those people who are now shouting for a war victory have to shove all that in there Ass and walk away

if my memory is correct on world history like Winston Churchill who lost at parliament after becoming the second world war hero who saved the country but never had a clear view upon the economy and rebuilding of the nation., hope the same thing won't happen to the current ruling body and history wouldn't be repeating by it self' in our small island

I hope some how they will see the mistakes and find some proper solutions to recover a dieing economy or else we will all end up like Zimbabwe and for all of us who are abroad living/working who have plans on settling down in our home land would be a distant dream in the horizon

[harshansenadhir]

well, vehicle market is bit down but not yet crashed. However on car sales guys perspective it's crashed!! I heard of few European cars up for sale at quite lower prices and those prices are really deals. But I still have positive thinking on the car market since government is not ready to let go of the limited foriegn currency reserves and loose on TAXes and at the same time with PEACE coming in there will be a demand for second hand(?) vehicles from north like it did happen during CFA.

[isam]

you are correct. but i believe imports should be restricted after providing an alternative. either the government need to boost the public transport sector or they need to help make automobile locally. neither of these have taken place. only time this took place was with commercial buses in late 90's. paving way for local producers like LAL and Tata/Latec to dominate.

Spot on! but the pity is none of the politicos realize that simple truth.

[isam]

hey it seems this is drifting away from the topic to another totally different subject any how it seems all this are inter-connected and i would love to give my humble opinion about this matter ... i'm not a analyst or a specialist on either economics nor politic is but I feel even though those chinthanaya blokes finally manage to finish the war and bring some peace to the country if there's no clear agenda about the economy and the development of srilanka ..When the next general elections come the party who has a clear vision on the economy and development of the country will win with a land slide and all those people who are now shouting for a war victory have to shove all that in there Ass and walk away

if my memory is correct on world history like Winston Churchill who lost at parliament after becoming the second world war hero who saved the country but never had a clear view upon the economy and rebuilding of the nation., hope the same thing won't happen to the current ruling body and history wouldn't be repeating by it self' in our small island

I hope some how they will see the mistakes and find some proper solutions to recover a dieing economy or else we will all end up like Zimbabwe and for all of us who are abroad living/working who have plans on settling down in our home land would be a distant dream in the horizon

I just wish our people to think that rationally. Even after the war, the politicos will harp on the victory and offer bread for 3.50 bucks and all the rational economics will be forgotten in a jiffy!

[isam]

well, vehicle market is bit down but not yet crashed. However on car sales guys perspective it's crashed!! I heard of few European cars up for sale at quite lower prices and those prices are really deals. But I still have positive thinking on the car market since government is not ready to let go of the limited foriegn currency reserves and loose on TAXes and at the same time with PEACE coming in there will be a demand for second hand(?) vehicles from north like it did happen during CFA.

Dunno the exact reason, guess the SL agents to be blamed, what I have observed is that European cars hit the deck the first in a price slump. There was this Montero which I checked out about 6 months ago at a car sale and its still there, and the price has not changed. Same happened on a Land Cruiser on Stanley Thilakarathne Mv car sale. Insane prices, not even budged!

[xXx]

hey it seems this is drifting away from the topic to another totally different subject any how it seems all this are inter-connected and i would love to give my humble opinion about this matter ... i'm not a analyst or a specialist on either economics nor politic is but I feel even though those chinthanaya blokes finally manage to finish the war and bring some peace to the country if there's no clear agenda about the economy and the development of srilanka ..When the next general elections come the party who has a clear vision on the economy and development of the country will win with a land slide and all those people who are now shouting for a war victory have to shove all that in there Ass and walk away

if my memory is correct on world history like Winston Churchill who lost at parliament after becoming the second world war hero who saved the country but never had a clear view upon the economy and rebuilding of the nation., hope the same thing won't happen to the current ruling body and history wouldn't be repeating by it self' in our small island

I hope some how they will see the mistakes and find some proper solutions to recover a dieing economy or else we will all end up like Zimbabwe and for all of us who are abroad living/working who have plans on settling down in our home land would be a distant dream in the horizon

if the majority sri lankans have bit of brains that's exactly what they should do. now that the war is over bring someone who can tackle the economy effective. i really hope the government won't rush into an election this year (i seriously doubt it though) as in another year or so the countries economy will be in such a disarray people will definitely give priority to their stomach before the country/patriotism.

[xXx]

well, vehicle market is bit down but not yet crashed. However on car sales guys perspective it's crashed!!

machang there's a massive difference between selling your own one and only car and selling 10+ cars a month just to stay afloat.

for example there are 18million people in sri lanka and they drink atleat 1 cup of tea a day. now that's a whole lot of tea been consumed on a daily basis. does that mean the tea industry is not in a crisis right now??????????

seriously, how much demand will there be from north for vehicles???? plus things will be different form last time around. i believe north will still be under a tight grip with certain goods been banned as a precaution to prevent northern cities form turning into bagdad or kabul.

[xXx]

Hi Guys,

I had a good offer for my N16 one month ago, I immediatly sold it. I think I made the right decision. Still not found another one to buy. The preferance is corolla ( registered one) Since the market started to fall, I thought to wait patiently for a good buy. Today,s paper says the Central bank is going to lift the 100% margin deposit requirement against letters of credit for the import of selected categories of motor vehcles, with effect from April 18th. Will this help to reduce the present car prices? can I wait for another month or two? please advice.

lifting of the LC margin won't do much as i doubt importers will bring in any new cars. this most probably been an election year and the possibility of regime change been very slim i don't see a change in this downward trend.

[kotte mafia]

i know machang XXX .. hope alot of doods will think like that but theres alot of ppl in the country and abroad who's eyes are closed by this curtain of lies but when they start to feel the heat then the horse is gone and theres no use of closing the stable ....

[fuzzo]

L Board.. after going through all this, have you decided on a vehicle yet?

[Watchman]

I once (a few montha ago) heard of a Jag XJ8, initially imported at around 40mil+ unable to fetch even 10mil less than a year after use.

Its not just the high end vehicles, even smaller diesel cars, which theoretically gives relatively cheaper personal transport, are unable to find themselves new owners. A 1500cc turbo diesel car that would have fetched around 700-750k about a year ago doesnt go for even 600k.

Leads me to ask, how are people going places? its not like public transport is getting any better or reliable by the day..

And i agree with xXx on how the government is flying through these times on its magic carpet called the 'victory of war'. But as soon as people find it difficult to fulfill the very basic requirements such as food, they'll soon realize that winning the war really wasn't the solution to everything.

[Devinda_Z]

I once (a few montha ago) heard of a Jag XJ8, initially imported at around 40mil+ unable to fetch even 10mil less than a year after use.

the blue car?? its still up for sale isn't it?

[Watchman]

the blue car?? its still up for sale isn't it?

not sure on that. let me check

[Devinda_Z]

not sure on that. let me check

currently owned by someone into shipping and admin of a raquet sport if i'm not mistaken..

[xXx]

the blue car?? its still up for sale isn't it?

yup he must be on about the Blue one. last i heard of it (couple of months back) its still with the owner

[xXx]

Leads me to ask, how are people going places? its not like public transport is getting any better or reliable by the day..

basically machang people are sticking to what they already have. they just want to hold on to their money and brace for the tough ride ahead. people who could afford have either lost their money to golden key/Sakvithy or they have lot it on their business or they have either already lost or unsure about their job

And i agree with xXx on how the government is flying through these times on its magic carpet called the 'victory of war'. But as soon as people find it difficult to fulfill the very basic requirements such as food, they'll soon realize that winning the war really wasn't the solution to everything.

i have a feeling by the time people realize this it'll be all too late

[DevakaC]

Winning the war is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. But we had to start somewhere and apparently things are heading the right way with regards to the war. We have to eradicate terrorism no second word about that, but what our leaders failed to eradicate over the years was the rage that was built in tamil people's minds.

Sri-Lankan economy is in no doubt in a crisis right now. GK collapse, declining foreign reserves, accumulated interests on all the loans, high ministerial maintenance costs, mihinlanka, loss on hedging etc. i heard Sri-Lankan airlines is struggling too. We need educated, practical economists to work on re-building our nation. we need economists who wouldn't tell the public we have an inflation rate of 15% when its well over 30% and say we have been having an economic development when we are facing a recession.

Immediate action to a recession is cost cutting. but what have our Govt folks replied with? WIth a Western Province election. Our leaders need to lead with example. Thats why people yet talk abt charachters such as Martin luther king, gandhi, premadasa.

[L board]

Guys Toyota LN107, LN166 which used to sell like hot cakes remain unsold for months now. You can easily buy a 1995 LN107 English number for just 2.7M. Even at such reduced prices (Compared to few months ago) vehicles remain unsold for months (take few old Sunday observers or Hitads and call the sellers to verify). The same has happened to the land market I heard. There are so many desparate sellers whose houses are about to be auctioned by banks and if you have some savings you can strike super deals. Both land and vehicle markets will crash to rock bottom levels in the next few months to come if not weeks. So if you are a buyer, you might as well be patient and wait for few months and if you are a seller you might as well sell for the most reasonable offer you get now.

Edited April 16, 2009 by L board

[whatever]

...At the same time may be they did realize that it is not an easy task as it may sound to crush the LTTE (Chandrika learned it the hard way, and MR is taking lessons on a daily basis)

..now that the war is over bring someone who can tackle the economy effective.

[xXx]

we'll see who's going to have the last laugh......... ha ha ha ha......

[isam]

Winning the war is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. But we had to start somewhere and apparently things are heading the right way with regards to the war. We have to eradicate terrorism no second word about that, but what our leaders failed to eradicate over the years was the rage that was built in tamil people's minds.

Sri-Lankan economy is in no doubt in a crisis right now. GK collapse, declining foreign reserves, accumulated interests on all the loans, high ministerial maintenance costs, mihinlanka, loss on hedging etc. i heard Sri-Lankan airlines is struggling too. We need educated, practical economists to work on re-building our nation. we need economists who wouldn't tell the public we have an inflation rate of 15% when its well over 30% and say we have been having an economic development when we are facing a recession.

Immediate action to a recession is cost cutting. but what have our Govt folks replied with? WIth a Western Province election. Our leaders need to lead with example. Thats why people yet talk abt charachters such as Martin luther king, gandhi, premadasa.

And with all that still thieves and liars get elected... maybe this country deserves the misery!