CB MUST COME FORWARD WITH SUITABLE MECHANISM

The Central Bank must come forward with a suitable monetary mechanism to arrest the ever depreciating rupee against the dollar before the rupee succumbs to a free fall, Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said yesterday.

President Maithripala Sirisena would direct the National Economic Commission (NEC) to find a pragmatic solution to arrest the fast depreciation of the rupee without any negative effect on the economy on his return from New York, he added.

He noted that economists and experts in the money market must review and comment on the distressing situation and added that the public, the victims of the economic debacle need some relief and not statistics and useless rhetoric from politicians.

Addressing the weekly SLFP news briefing at the party office, Minister Samarasinghe admitted that the people were in dire strait as a direct outcome of the sharply depreciating rupee and the Cost of Living was rising rapidly.

Minister Samarasinghe who is also the SLFP spokesman said the deprecation of the rupee has benefited exporters and families of expatriate Sri Lankans but hit hard of importers and consumers who purchase imported goods.

“The problem is that there is a huge gap between imports and exports. The increase of our imports stood at 17% while the increase of exports has been only 14% in the first 8 months of this year which has resulted a huge draining of foreign exchange. The Central Bank will have to release dollars from foreign reserves to the money market to arrest the depreciation of the rupee and save the low income and the middle class families from further distress,” he stressed.