Nandalal Weerasinghe: Latest News

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe had noted that if Sri Lanka's debt is not restructured, Sri Lanka would have had a foreign debt burden of 06 billion dollars per year for many years to come. "Because it is difficult to pay, the debt payment is temporarily suspended and this process is used to restructure the debt," he told a meeting at the President's Office on Thursday (22)."We are unable to pay under the current terms, so we are asking the commercial institutions and private sectors and the respective governments that have granted us loans, to give us a relief period," he had noted, said the President's Media Division.The PMD also quoted the Central Bank Governor as saying that the first step in that process is the assurance given by the bilateral countries, and the International Monetary Fund has set targets for debt sustainability.

Bloomberg:  Sri Lanka’s bailout by the International Monetary Fund will help the bankrupt nation lower its borrowing costs, thanks in part to a change in how the cash can be used, central bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said, reported Bloomber.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka is ready to adopt the IMF program within March 2023, said Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on Friday (3) during the Monetary Policy Review."When we negotiated the staff level agreement with the IMF and finalized the agreement on the 1st of September, we had inflation projections from both the IMF and the Central Bank," he told reporters."At that time we were hoping to get the program unlocked somewhere in December (2022), and the end-year IMF inflation target was 70% and we had a little over that.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe has assured that measures are being taken to ensure the safety and protection of the banking industry.He was speaking at the 33rd Anniversary convention of the Associations of Professional Bankers in Colombo on Monday (20)."In this kind of situation (present economic crisis) we all know banks are not in an easy situation like we had in the past.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe is hopeful that assurances from creditors can be obtained within the 1st quarter of the year.Speaking at the Monetary Policy Review No. 01 of 2023, the governor said that he is hopeful that the International Monetary Fund would be able to receive necessary financing assurances from all the creditors in a very short period."India has clearly given the financial assurances which are acceptable to the International Monetary Fund.

BBC – Sri Lanka's central bank has urged China and India to agree a write-down of their loans as soon as possible, reported the BBC on Thursday (12).The crisis-hit Indian Ocean state defaulted on its debt repayments and negotiated a $2.9bn (£2.4bn) bailout.But the International Monetary Fund will not release the cash until China and India first agree to reduce Sri Lanka's billions of dollars of debt.The governor of Sri Lanka's central bank told BBC Newsnight it was in the interest of all parties to act quickly.Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said: "The sooner they give us finance assurances that would be better for both [sides], as a creditor, as a debtor.""That will help us to start repaying their obligations," he added."We don't want to be in this kind of situation, not meeting the obligations, for too long.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – According to the Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, market interest rates have been tightening since last August and the Central Bank has been continuing to tighten their monetary policy since April and July of this year; Central banks engage in tight monetary policy when an economy is accelerating too quickly or inflation is rising too fast.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said that the Central Bank cannot make popular decisions, and making popular decisions is the job of the government."When you listen the budget debate these days, there are a lot of allegations on the Central Bank saying that CBSL contracted the economy and this model is not sustainable, and as a result the people are suffering," he said while speaking at the 40th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lankan Apparel Exporters Association in Colombo on Tuesday (22).He said as the Governor of the Central Bank he is the person who is in charge of the monetary policy, and would not like to creep into or encroach someone else's authority in terms of the fiscal policy.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe told a forum organized by the Ceylon Institute of Builders that the country's construction sector boomed due to government-funded projects, but the same model will not apply in the future."After the end of the war mega-infrastructure development projects took place, largely are government-funded projects, either borrowed-money or taxpayers money," he said, adding that when the Sri Lankan government was finding it difficult to finance a comfort letter was given to the private commercial banks, where funding can be obtained from the banks for the government project and the money will be paid later."That was a trap," revealed the Central Bank Governor.He said that the country's construction sector developed to its present state was mainly due to government-funded projects, and going forward the sector cannot rely on government-sponsored projects."If we are going forward with the same model, we will see another round of restructuring, and debt sustainability issues.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lankan authorities held a virtual meeting with Sri Lanka’s official creditors agains on Friday (4).The meeting was chaired by the Secretary to the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance, K M Mahinda Siriwardana, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.The meeting represents another important step towards securing International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board approval for Sri Lanka’s IMF program.Sri Lanka reached a Staff-Level Agreement with the IMF on a four-year program supported by the Extended Fund Facility on 1st September 2022. The program, amounting to USD 2.9bn, is expected to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability while protecting the vulnerable and safeguarding Sri Lanka’s financial system.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, and the Finance Secretary have both echoed that the process to stabilize the economy is going to be a painful process.However, the Minister of Mass Media, Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – 'Stabilization is a very very painful process', was a statement made by the Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe at this morning's (25) launch of the report on the 'state of the economy' published by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The report contains national policy frameworks for recovery and policy adjustments for stabilization that were tabled and discussed by the board of the IPS and the Governor.

(Bloomberg) – Sri Lanka’s 70% inflation is hitting its peak as crippling shortages ease and bailout funds look within reach, yet it’s far from putting the central bank governor at ease.“We think we are seeing the peak of inflation,” central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said in an interview in Colombo on Thursday. “There’s still some way to go,” he said on fixing the island nation’s economy and its finances.The governor, a career central banker who six months ago raised the policy rate by a staggering 700 basis points as among his first acts to stabilize a nation rocked by a debt crisis, said the monetary authority’s rate decisions will remain data driven and forward looking.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka will meet with the International Monetary Fund next week for another round of talks, said Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on Thursday (6)."Next week, the State Finance Minister, Treasury Secretary and CBSL staff will meet the IMF for talks and we hope to continue with the discussions with creditor nations, and commercial creditors.

(Nikkei) Sri Lanka's government appears increasingly upbeat about its chances of receiving International Monetary Fund board approval for a $2.9 billion bailout by December, but the multilateral lender has cautioned that the time frame remains uncertain, and much depends on discussions with the heavily indebted country's creditors.Peter Breuer, senior mission chief for Sri Lanka, and Masahiro Nozaki, mission chief for Sri Lanka, in written comments to Nikkei Asia, said, "It is difficult to predict the timeline, as the process of debt relief discussions takes time. All parties who are involved in the process should move expeditiously, so that Sri Lanka can emerge from the crisis as quickly as possible."On Sept.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, the Governor of the Central Bank research collaborations between academia and policymakers to address various issues faced by the economies amidst the prevailing high volatility in the global economic landscape is of paramount importance.The Governor highlighted that although the applicability and validity of findings of certain models and theories presented in theoretical academic research could be somewhat limited amidst crises like the one Sri Lanka is facing at present, ongoing effort to study the dynamics of emerging market economies is an essential element in the recovery process. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka co-hosted the CBSL-ADBI-APAEA Online Macroeconomics Conference for the third consecutive year, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association (APAEA), on 23 September 2022. This year’s theme remained the same as the previous year; 'Emerging Issues for Macroeconomic Stability'.Inaugurating the Conference, Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st) – Sri Lanka is hopeful that the first tranche of the IMF disbursement will be available before the end of 2022, but it depends on cooperation from the creditors and assurances, revealed Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on Friday (23). He was speaking in an update to creditors forum organized by Clifford Chance and Lazard, the eavyweight financial and legal advisers selected by Sri Lanka for its debt restructuring process.Expected timeline for the Debt Restructuring Process: Central Bank Governor Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st); US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu says the U.S. welcomes Sri Lanka & IMF working towards a sustainable solution to relieve the economic hardships for its people.The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs said that Assistant Secretary Lu, Sri Lankan Finance Minister Sabry & Central Bank Governor Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Minister of Finance PC Ali Sabry and a delegation left the island this morning (17) for discussions with the International Monetary Fund.-The delegation, which left for Washington, D.C., included Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance K.M.M.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Several discussions were held on Saturday (16) under the auspices of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding the current situation in the country.The President’s Media Division (PMD) said the first discussion was between Finance Minister Ali Sabri, PC, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Secretary to the President Gamini Senerath, Presidential Advisor Lalith Weeratunga, and Secretary to the Ministry of Finance K.S.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says Sri Lanka will suspend Normal Debt Servicing and start negotiating debt restructuring.Speaking at a media briefing which was held at the Finance Ministry premises this morning, Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st); It’s been a week since the Sri Lankan Cabinet resigned en masse and the country is YET to see the appointment of a Minister of Health, while the entire health system is in crisis.All the crises in the country including the Health crisis have arisen as a result of Sri Lanka’s economy spiraling down.An online discussion was to be scheduled on Monday (11) regarding the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), however, it has not taken place as planned.Speaking to News 1st Finance Minister Ali Sabry, PC confirmed this.The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Prof. Nandalal Weerasinghe said in a media briefing held recently that another discussion will be held on the 18th of April.Meanwhile, Masahiro Nosaki, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told the Bloomberg website that discussions would be held with policymakers in the coming days or weeks on possible assistance to Sri Lanka.He has noted that he is ready to support Sri Lanka based on his policies.However, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that he is closely monitoring the Political and Economic situation.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe was appointed as the new Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Thursday (7).The President’s Media Division announced that he received the letter of appointment from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday (7) evening.At the same time, K.