Whilst Sri Lanka’s major creditors have still not got together to discuss debt restructuring, as part of the effort to draw a clear line under a debt crisis that spurred South Asia’s first default in 100 years, the Governor who has got this habit of blabbing to the media. Now he has said If Sri Lanka had gone earlier to the IMF we would not be in this mess.
This is nothing new. Opposition said so several times. This is a direct attack on the head of state. Whilst we all agree that mismanagement was clearly on the part of the president, and he was the root cause of this unprecedented crisis. He was badly advised. This type of statements is unwarranted.
Anyway what was Nandalal doing in the Central Bank as no 2 ? Daydreaming? Could he produce a document that shows he was advocating for the IMF? CBSL withdrew from the IMF program way back as 2020. Nandalal was too busy at that time working out his pension of Rs 750,000 per month. So he did not want to rock the boat.Worse than going to the IMF, was the south Asian tea producer defaulting on a paltry $78 Million USD in 2022, shutting Sri Lanka out of the capital markets.
Sri Lanka now seeks relief on its more than $ 55 billion of external debt (Zimbabwe was only $ 17 billion) to get its borrowing under control. Sri Lanka will soon hold its first meeting with its international creditors — which include a plethora of Chinese , Japanese and Indian institutions , Western banks, sovereign bilateral lenders and multilateral institutions. Sri Lanka needs to urgently reach a staff-level agreement on a $5 billion three-year extended credit facility with the IMF and needs to finish bilateral negotiations to secure the funding.
Nandalal other than spreading doom and gloom by increasing interest rates and going for a soft default (invented by Nandalal) he has not raised one Dollar to ease the situation . That is expected of a CBSL Governor. Instead he has focused on curbing the private sector and issuing statements, politicizing the institution further. Analysts say that Nandalal is not man for a crisis, he may be good they say in times when the country is stable. The country needs a people and business friendly Governor who can be innovative within the four walls of the CBSL.
Not a man who spells doom and gloom continuously. Unfortunately the President does not understand this and he will only make matters worse for Sri Lanka. Since he has now come back from the shadows to run the government.
Adolf
