(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says the Central Bank is currently implementing a clear program and ready to make strong decisions to recover from the current economic crisis within a short time.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Dr. Weerasinghe said he is confident that Sri Lanka can come out of this severe economic crisis within a period of 05 months but until then Sri Lanka will experience a difficult time.
When asked whether he would agree with the President-elect Ranil Wickremesinghe’s statement that the previous government lied to the people about the economic situation, the head of the Central Bank declining to comment on political administration said the earlier administration of the Central Bank and the government had a wrong economic model and have considered support from the IMF for a bailout is unnecessary.
Dr. Weerasinghe said the new government will have to seek bridge financing facilities from friendly countries like India, China in order to get out of the economic difficulties that Sri Lanka is facing until an agreement is reached with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, probably sometime in December.
“The new administration should start approaching those friendly countries or some other sources to secure some sort of financing so that we will be able to supply essential items for the people to have their day-to-day operations smoothly.”
He said that the people of Sri Lanka will have to be patient for the next few months. The governor said he is hopeful that people would be patient until Sri Lanka can ride out the crisis situation over the next couple of months.
He expressed confidence that Sri Lanka would be able to recover from this crisis in about 5 months if things were done properly.
