ECONOMYNEXT – Ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka should withdraw comments objecting to an International Monetary Fund report and initiate talks with the lender based on what is Executive Board has said.
He said an aid consortium should be formed with India, China, the EU and multilateral agencies.
“I had an opportunity to talk to the Managing Director of the IMF (Kristalina Georgieva),” he said. “She said she is willing to help. But until the process (IMF program) is done there is no money. I talked to the regional head of the World Bank.
“The ADB and World Bank can give funds some activities. For medicine. Finance Minister you can initiate the talks.”
India, China, South Korea and the EU should be formed into an aid consortium.
He said the Executive was today inactive and the Parliament should act.
The Finance Committee can take the forward he said.
Sri Lanka has frequent currency crisis after an intermediate regime central bank was set up in 1950. Each time the country’s interventionist economists print money to keep rates down, the country runs into foex shortages undermining the intermediate regime peg.
When reserves are down and the credibility of the peg has been lost, the country goes to the IMF which asks it the raise interest rates and taxes as the economy goes into the inevitable downturn to pay for the sins of the money printing period.
Politicians and the public usually pays the price. Classical economists and analyts have called for changes to the central bank law to restrain its open market operations and check its discretionary powers.
i ish you the est. i hope these men an omen in parliament listen to saner counsel from you. regards mahendran c.
Low income people are in hunger. Immediate action should be taken like above.
Only Ranil has the plan to save the country. But will these pundits listen to him at least now?