SLIIT Business School Takes Yet Another Major Step Forward Publishing in a Highly Ranked Journal
SLIIT is a leading higher education institution in Sri Lanka. Known for its stellar reputation, the Business School at SLIIT has a unique educational scope which gives students a way into the complex business world of today. The exemplary team of students Ms. Rishani Rathnayake, Ms. Bhakthi Jayathilake, Ms. Dananja Bodinayake and Ms. Deumi Kathriarachchi Kathriarachchi, supervised by Prof. Ruwan Jayathilaka of SLIIT Business School, received due recognition for their journal titled “Exploring the growth direction: the impact of exchange rate and purchasing managers index on economic growth in Sri Lanka” published in the reputed, world-renowned journal “Quality and Quantity”. This is a highranked Scopus-indexed journal that constitutes a point of reference for all European and non-European scholars willing to discuss instruments of methodology for more rigorous scientific results in the social sciences with a Scimago Ranking in the Q1, Scopus top 4% with CiteScore of 7.5.
Speaking with us, the authors of the journal paper gave a brief overview of the research and shared their collective experience at SLIIT Business School.
Q : Congratulations on your publication. Could you all elaborate on the research
A: Both international and regional studies have looked at how changes in the exchange rate affect economic development. Only a small number of studies have been conducted on this topic in local contexts, and none have looked at the relationship between the Purchasing Managers' Index and the exchange rate and economic growth in Sri Lanka. Therefore, with this study, what we aimed to do was to use an applied research methodology and rely on secondary data from quarterly reports by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka between 2015 and 2021 to examine the effects of the exchange rate and the Purchasing Managers' Index on economic expansion.
In this analysis, we used the Granger Causality Wald test and the Vector autoregression model. Based on data analysis, it was discovered that the exchange rate significantly influenced economic growth, while GDP growth and the Purchasing Managers' Index both negatively impacted it. The Purchasing Managers' Index and the exchange rate also failed as predictors of the exchange rate. The study's findings highlight the importance of the exchange rate and the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index as leading indicators of macroeconomic growth. We believe these results will be useful for the decision-making processes of the Sri Lankan government, policymakers, and foreign investors.
Q
: How did you achieve such a significant achievement, and what was the support you got from SLIIT? A: This was a challenging task to begin with. Our primary objective from the start was to publish in a peerreviewed journal with a strong international reputation. Having to juggle both university and work makes things even more challenging.
Without the invaluable direction and encouragement of our supervisor, Prof. Ruwan Jayathilaka, Head of the Department, none of this would have been possible. We knew from the start that we would want to seek the guidance of Prof. Jayathilaka to supervise this research because of his known reputation as a scholar in his field. During our initial brainstorming session, he planted the idea that setting a realistic goal of having our research article published in a high-quality journal was important.