The macro-economic slowdown in
Deficiency in implementing policy decisions to restore investor sentiments and rejuvenate tourism and other key sectors affected by the Easter attacks impacted consumer demand, it said.
Retail was affected by the dismal growth and financial costs while Healthcare's robust performance was offset by losses of the Kandy hospital, which is expected to breakeven by the end of the financial year, while Leisure was mostly affected by lack of tourist traffic.
'Nonetheless,
The Odel departmental store which is now on par with any other international departmental store takes up 54,000 sq ft on three conjoined floors where it offers a much larger space for Home and Beauty centres for its shoppers. COCO by Cotton Collection along with 20 other branded apparel stores of international standard have also opened in One
Group revenue increased 9 per cent to
Gross Profit (GP) improved 10 per cent to
Slow growth in tourism in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, a high interest rate and tax regime affected retail performance coinciding with retail spending contracting at the same time.
Being a future-focused conglomerate,
'… we are optimistic that economic consolidation will take place in conjunction with the newly elected President as it would inspire confidence in the body politic leaving no room for any milestone in the economy to be unturned. With this optimism, we believe the security situation in the country will improve dramatically thereby facilitating the resurgence of tourism and related industries which in turn would result in a recovery benefitting our performance,' the statement added.
© Pakistan Press International, source