Recent measures taken to reverse imbalance in economy - Cabraal

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Sri Lanka is moving towards a 100 billion dollar GDP and the recent measures taken was meant to reverse the imbalance in the economy.

We were victims of our own success that resulted in our trade deficit becoming wider which affected the overall current account and the BOP. Measures were needed to address the key issues to reverse this position to sustain the economic growth, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivad Cabraal said.

We see this as a temporally period till the necessary corrections take place.

We can afford a dampening of economic growth and the Central Bank reduced the growth forecast from 8 to 7.2 percent making a conscious decision opting for economic consolidation. The corrective measures are a trade off, he said at the Business Leaders Forum 2012 under the theme “Be a part of evolution - role of business leaders towards achieving emerging economic challenges,” held in Colombo on Wednesday.

Stressing the need to have the basics right, the governor said that the business leaders while having a cohesive plan of action to identify opportunities arising from challenges needs to have a team to harness these opportunities by converting dreams into action. They need to change the course of action when there are obstacles and search for alternative paths.

The way to achieve right results in a challenging environment in a depressing world scenario will be to be optimistic in nature as business people make investments and own efforts of creating value.

It is not necessary to take a optimistic view always, but need to plan continuously not losing sight of the final objective. It is important to set sail according to the wind while aiming high and shaking people out of comfort zones, he said.

The world has enough challenges and these external events transmitted to Sri Lanka's economy. The business entities need to be sensitive for the changes and demand results having a right structure in place as there will be responses. They need to move extremely fast and the key to afloat in difficult situations is to search for innovative solutions aligned to the task.

The governor emphasis on the importance of treading in the middle path and to be equipped to deal with challenges.

"Business leaders need to have resilience, courage and ability while also having a clear mindset. As a country we have a vision to achieve $ 4,000 per-capital income, move out of poverty, overall regional development and electricity for all, and moving towards the objectives. This needs a different approach, timing and firmly edged determination," he said.