The Manufacturing Sector PMI stood at 56.5 in October compared to 57.7 in September 2016. The deceleration in PMI indicate that the manufacturing activities are expanding at a moderate pace in October 2016. The deceleration in October compared to September was mainly due to the moderated pace in which Production and New Orders sub-indices performed. The Stock of Purchases sub-index increased significantly in October indicating a stack of stocks for the upcoming season while Suppliers’ Delivery Time increased marginally. The Employment sub-index also decelerated compared to the previous month. Overall data points to an expansion where all the subindices are above the neutral 50.0 threshold. The expectations for activities indicate an improvement for the next three months.
In terms of the provisions of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No. 6 of 2006 (FTRA), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Sri Lanka entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Inland Revenue on October 19, 2016 at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to exchange information in order to facilitate investigations and prosecutions on money laundering and terrorist financing. Mrs. Kalyani Dahanayake, Commissioner General, Department of Inland Revenue and Mr. H. Amarathunga, Director, FIU signed the MOU on behalf of the respective institutions in the presence of Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, who is also the Chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Coordinating Committee.
