Prof. Priyanga Dunusinghe, a senior lecturer of economics and the Head of the Department of IT at the University of Colombo, has stated that despite Sri Lanka’s recent economic stability, this is not likely to reflect towards the country’s economic growth.

Speaking further in this regard, Prof. Dunusinghe highlighted that bank interest rates are yet to be significantly reduced, while credit flow is also yet to take place.

“We are yet to see the reduction of market interest rates and the subsequent credit flow, banks too, are still maintaining high interest rates”, the Professor said in this regard, attributing such policies to Sri Lanka’s lack of economic growth.

Albeit acknowledging certain policies that indeed contributed towards the country’s economic stability thus far, such as policies which helped maintain low inflation rates and prevented the depreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee, Prof. Dunusinghe noted that “although certain economic policies related to stabilisation have shown to be effective, they have still failed to intervene to create economic growth”.

Meanwhile, commenting with regards to Sri Lanka’s Domestic Debt Optimisation (DDO) process, Prof. Dunusinghe warned that if the relevant parties do not come to an agreement pertaining  to the DDO soon, it is likely to hinder the country’s future with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).