By Garvin Karunaratne

I refer to the news item today:

 Do not shirk responsibility of rebuilding the economy: let me know the correct strategy – President tells CB chiefs.”

This reminds me of what I wrote on the Central Bank  way back in 2002:

The Central Bank in its latest Annual Report states that it no longer controls our foreign exchange. To my thinking,  controlling our currency   and handling the foreign exchange our country receives is the fundamental task of any Central Bank. It is the Central Bank of any country  that recommends to the Ministry of Finance  the fiscal and monetary measures that have to be taken to enable growth and development. One knows how Greenspan is controlling the US economy. A Central Bank cannot function in the interests of the country  when it acts  in the role of a poodle to the IMF. Today go to any foreign bank and one will find that they allocate and allow  foreign exchange to citizens even without checking their bonafides. I am told that the two State Banks handle strictly according to the rules. Leaving the handling of our foreign exchange to foreign banks will be a total disaster. We do not need an inactive Central Bank. It is time that the Central Bank gets teeth.”(From:How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success, (Godages:20065, Page 261,262)

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.

Author of: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages:2017

16/06/2020, Rajagiriya