(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Governor of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy has said that he submitted his resignation earlier this month and plans to leave his post in December, Bloomberg News reported.
Coomaraswamy has said by phone from Colombo that the decision was due to personal reasons and not related to recent political changes following last week’s election.
He will chair his final monetary policy decision on Nov. 29 and leave the bank on Dec. 20, he said.
“I tended a letter of resignation on Nov. 4. It has nothing to do with elections and politics,” he said. “It has been in the making” since last year, but had been put on hold due to the 2018 political crisis and April terror attacks, he said.
Former President Maithripala Sirisena appointed renowned economist and the former Director of Economic Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat as the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July 2016.
Under his leadership since July 2016, the central bank has raised interest rates to a six-year high to curb inflation and took measures to stem the currency’s slide. The bank cut rates twice this year after economic growth took a knock from political turmoil and the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, which hurt tourism to the island nation.
The Governor has tendered his resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena. Mohan Karunaratne, a spokesman for new president Rajapaksa, wasn’t immediately available to comment, Bloomberg said.
