Central Bank Governor Indrajith Coomaraswamy yesterday said Sri Lanka’s economy is growing and is on an upward trend– although the growth has been slow.
He said the growth in the second quarter was higher than the first quarter and he expected the growth in the second half to be higher than the first half. “Headline inflation in September was 4.3 percent and food price inflation extremely low because of pretty decent ‘Maha’ and ‘Yala’ harvests,” he told a World Bank forum to launch South Asian report on regional trade yesterday.
Talking about criticisms by certain groups on the present economic situation, the governor said, those who are saying economy is collapsing is actually acting as anti-nationalist act. “
They have to back that claim up with data and data on growth. Current inflation and reserves do not point to any collapse,” he said.
Inflation has stabilised and reserves have improved. Sri Lanka will also receive US$ 1 billion this week. The current reserve level stands at US$ 7.1 billion. “We are also hoping to finalise Panda and Samurai bonds which would bring another US$ 500 million shortly.”
Last week, the Central Bank officials said they expect to close this year with around US$ 8.3 billion of reserves.
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