Sri Lanka Names New Central Bank Chief Days Before Rate Decision
Sri Lanka Appoints Lakshman as New Central Bank Governor
(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka appointed Weligamage Don Lakshman as the new central bank governor, days before the monetary authority is due to review interest rates.
Lakshman is a former adviser to the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and succeeds Indrajit Coomaraswamy, who stepped down earlier citing personal reasons. The announcement on Tuesday is among the top economic appointments by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won the presidential election last month, so far.
The new governor takes charge at a time when economic growth has slowed after political turmoil and the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, which hurt tourism. The central bank, which cut interest rates twice this year, is due to review policy on Dec. 27.
A Bloomberg News survey of economists before the appointment showed the central bank keeping its key lending and deposit rates unchanged.
Lakshman is a professor emeritus at the department of economics in the University of Colombo, of which he was vice chancellor from 1994 to 1999. In 2005, he was awarded Sri Lanka’s second-highest civilian honor ‘Deshamanya’ for his contribution to the field of education.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anusha Ondaatjie in Colombo at anushao@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karthikeyan Sundaram, Subramaniam Sharma
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