Too early to predict impact of Easter attacks-CBSL Govenor

(FASTNEWS|COLOMBO) – The Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy says the Easter Sunday bombings clearly had an impact on confidence and sentiment, but the extent of disruption likely depends on how quickly the government can stabilize the situation.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Coomaraswamy said the Central Bank forecast the economic growth to be between 3.5-4% this year before the unfortunate Easter Sunday attacks.

He said “We thought that there were sufficient grounds for pick up the growth from the 3.2% last year, Tourism sector was doing very well. Industrial sector, particularly industrial exports were buoyant. The 16% depreciation (of rupee) last year clearly helps. There were number of pockets, like IT industry where we were seeing buoyancy in the economy”.

The Governor said it’s far too early to say to what extent these events would have an impact on the economic growth.

He noted “If one is able to bring normalcy and also to give confidence to the people and the businesses that the situation is under control, then it is possible that the impact can be contained”.

According to the Governor of the Central Bank, the tourism sector will be the most affected in the short term, pointing out that the tourism sector has a number of supply chains attached to it, such as the agriculture sector, services, handicrafts, transport, leisure activities and transport and all these will likely to be affected.