CB Governor paints rosy picture for Sri Lanka

This was the best and most favourable circumstances that Sri Lanka had during the past 50 years as major paradigm shifts had taken place to which "we need to adjust if we are to realise the full potential", said Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Indrajit Coomaraswamy in a keynote address at the CIMA Business Leaders Summit 2016 -Joining the Dots, held at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo recently.

"If you look back at Sri Lanka 25 years after independence Sri Lanka had a severe decline in trade when prices of tea, rubber and coconuts exports fell." The World Bank Development Report of 1982 on Sri Lanka mentions about the trade decline for a couple of decades while the country's population was growing by over 3 per cent.

Surpluses of the country's economy were coming down while the population was going up. These were the major drags of the economic prospects of the country and problems that compounded when Sri Lanka adopted inward looking controlled economic policies starting in 1960 that intensified in the 1970s.

"The domestic market was 15 million or less and you cannot achieve 5-7or 8 per cent of growth with that number."

When the economy was liberalised in 1978 Sri Lanka was not able to take advantage of the liberalised economy with the onset and escalation of an armed conflict. Today there are no such major drags on the economic prospects of the country. Sri Lanka is located in Asia 20 miles from the fastest growing large economy of the world and a single market in India and right in the middle of China's Maritime Silk route. "We have excellent bilateral relations with countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and with key US markets. "This is

The prospect for the economy in my view is excellent as we are located in the most the dynamic region in the world. Business as usual is becoming more challenging and we have to have a balance between social development and growth

probably the best shot we have had for many years."

"The prospect for the economy in my view is excellent as we are located in the most dynamic region in the world. Business as usual is becoming more challenging and we have to have a balance between social development and growth." He said although Sri Lanka's economic growth was second to Japan at the time of independence, today the country is far behind many countries.

Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama, Chief Guest, in his address said that they have inherited a regime that was close minded during the past few years and now the difficulty is to change the mindset of people both in the public and the private sector and the media.

However both President Maithripala Sirisena the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are determined to make that change. Today the government is making extremely difficult economic policy decisions. Over the past seven years the total expenditure has been in excess of the revenue which had been a complete failure. The previous government has borrowed excessively.