Sri Lankan government assures stable rupee and low interest rates
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reform Ajith Nivard Cabraal has reportedly assured that the country’s private sector that the rupee would be stable and that interest rates would also remain low and stable.
Cabraal has made this observation while delivering the keynote address at the Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka Conference held virtually recently.
Sri Lanka is negotiating new financial instruments to handle the downturn caused by the pandemic. Cabraal has said, “We need special instruments in place so the downturn is managed, so we can have reasonable interest rates. We have had to see that sufficient money is pumped into the economy.
“Hopefully we can move into these new instruments so that there can be no undue influence on the economy.”
Cabraal has reportedly said that the current crisis was unprecedented and as such there was no textbook mechanism to get out of it and has called for innovative thinking and a pragmatic approach to get out of the current downturn.
The State Minister has promised the private sector that there would be state enterprise reform and that over 800 projects are being undertaken by the current government with over 300 being over Rs 1 billion. Cabraal has further said, “The Government service is to be a lot more efficient. We expect that to be a trigger, the stage would be set for the private sector to do better.”
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is focused on strengthening the country’s economy and create an attractive environment for foreign investments to flow in to the country. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean, ease of doing business environment and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country will definitely help the island become a business hub in the South Asian region. Foreign businesses/investors could explore business opportunities in an emerging economy in the South Asian region that is Sri Lanka.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/28102020/Z_4 |