Cabraal says he wished the country held more foreign exchange reserves

Says talk about the collapse of the economy would end up in the trash

by Sanath Nanayakkare

I wish there were more foreign exchange reserves in the country so that we would have been able to utilise it as and when the need arose, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the State Minister of Finance, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms said in Colombo yesterday.

He said so while speaking at an online media briefing organised by the Department of Government Information yesterday on the topic ‘Will the economy collapse? Will GSP+ be withdrawn?’ — moderated by journalist Shyam Nuwan Ganewatta of our sister newspaper.

When asked whether Sri Lanka’s current foreign reserves standing at or a little under US$ 4 billion was not a cause for concern for him, the state minister replied,” I wish there were more foreign reserves so that we would have been able to utilise it as and when the need arose. When Mahinda Rajapaksa administration handed over the government to Yahapalanaya Administration (YA) in 2015, the foreign reserves stood at US$ 8.2 billion. And the YA issued international sovereign bonds (ISBs) to the tune of US$ 12 billion in 5 years. If they had maintained the foreign reserves prudently from that period onwards, today we would have had US$ 8 billion +US$ 12 billion making it US$ 20 billion, and we would have been able to do anything with that.”

“However, we won’t run away from the current challenge. Restructuring existing debt with the IMF won’t be as meaningful as they claim, but ensuring the inflow of non-debt creating inflows to the country is the sustainable way to deal with debt repayment and other dollar-denominated expenditure. For this we have introduced new methodologies and innovative investment arms to attract foreign inflows to the country. For example, the taxes imposed on the gem industry were removed and foreign direct investments will soon flow into the Port City Colombo. The positive outcomes of such strategies and our economic management will become evident before long,” he said.

“The talk that economy is going to collapse soon is being heard all over the place is not a new concern. From the first day this government came to power, the detractors have claimed that the economy would collapse. Even back in 2006 they made the same claim when global oil prices rose and also during the global financial crisis in 2007-2008. They used to claim on a daily basis that the government would fall but it didn’t happen. This is being said again with political motivations and interests and not with real economic interests at heart. What is unfathomable is some economic analysts also pick such views and make the same claim. But none of them offer solutions to the issues they highlight. And when a particular issue or issues were fixed without rocking the boat, those who expressed those unfavourable opinions would vanish into thin air. This shows that they don’t say these things with honest intentions and their fervent wish has been to see the fall of the government.”

“Of course, challenges lie ahead of us. We know about them better than they do and we have taken action to address them and will take more policy measures in the next 2-3 weeks to further strengthen the foundation we have built for resolving the impending problems. By means of these measures, we will ensure the stability of the economy and the government and this talk about the collapse of the economy would end up in the trash.”

Responding to a question whether restructuring of debt with the IMF would be sensible, he said,” Different proponents express different arguments. The thing is they are only half-truths. They want us to go to the IMF because they know what happened to them when they did so. They had to comply with the IMF formula and they want us to go through it too. We had a growth rate of 7.4% in 2014 and they brought it down to 2.1% by 2019 – as a result of their international transactions. So we will find other alternatives rather than going to the IMF because the IMF requires us to follow conditions that are more related to our sovereignty than the economic conditions of the country,” he said.