SL prez: Economic reforms? There's no economy!
December 06, 2022 16:08
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has acknowledged that there was no point in economic reforms in Sri Lanka because the cash-starved island nation didn't have an economy, as he made a strong pitch for a new economic model.
Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948, triggered by a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. In mid-April, Sri Lanka declared its international debt default due to the forex crisis.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2022 on Monday, Wickremesinghe said the country's beleaguered economy cannot be set right through outdated economic systems.
As Sri Lanka's economy went into a perpetual tailspin in recent times, Wickremesinghe acknowledged that economic reforms were not the antidote for the current malaise.
"What is the plan for reform? Frankly, I have no plan for it. What reforms when we don't have an economy," the Daily Lanka Mirror newspaper quoted Wickremesinghe as saying.
"What we want to do is to build a new economy," he explained.
"The current economy is not worth reforming because it is so fragile that it will crumble again, the report quoted him as saying. Our trade balance is not in our favour. So are we going to rebuild the same structure and come down again much faster? Therefore I thought it's not worth reforming it," Wickremesinghe said.
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