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Eight int’l banks bid for Treasury bonds:
Economy most stable now
Lakshmi DE SILVA
Sri Lanka’s economy now is most stable for the first time since
independence and eight major international banks made bids for our
Treasury bonds last Friday, a remarkable achievement for our country,
Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister and Deputy Finance
Minister Dr.Sarath Amunugama said at the UPFA press conference in
Colombo yesterday.
Our foreign currency reserves are sufficient for imports for more
than three and a half months, a very good indicator that our reserves
are strong.
The IMF has given us the first instalment of the 2.6 billion US
dollar loan and they would release soon the second instalment of 300
million US dollars. Sri Lanka will get all eight instalments as planned,
though the Opposition Leader created stories when he woke up after a
sleep, he said.
During the 1976/78 period the foreign reserves were sufficient only
for about one week’s imports but with the financial management of the
Mahinda Rajapaksa government the foreign reserves could be invested and
saved for at least six months, he said.
The interest rates had come down to 11 to 12 percent from 20 to 25
percent last year and it had created an upward trend in the
agricultural, industrial and service sectors while the small and medium
entrepreneurs too had also recorded a growth.
The inflation rate that was around 10 to 11 percent would come down
to single digit due to the stable economic condition, he said.
Though the Ranil Wickremesinghe government reduced the workforce of
the government from one million to 600,000 with voluntary retirement
schemes the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government increased the number of public
servants to 1.2 million and gave employment opportunities to 44,000
graduates and also strengthened the public sector, Amunugama said.
Answering a question the Minister said the Government was ready to
conduct a dialogue with foreign investors like Marks and Spencer and
others to canvass for the GSP+ issue in favour of Sri Lanka.
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