Weligamage Don Lakshman: Road map 2021 - monetary and financial sector policies for 2021 and beyond
Speech by Prof Weligamage Don Lakshman, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Colombo, 4 January 2021.
1. Introduction
Your Excellencies, members of the Monetary Board, Deputy Governors, Assistant Governors and other Officials of the Central Bank, Officials of the Government and the financial sector, Ladies and Gentlemen, I warmly welcome you all for the Road Map 2021 of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
I am continuing a tradition that started in 2007. This Road Map statement covers 2021 and a few years beyond. I will be articulating the broad directions of monetary and financial sector policies over the said period. I am unfortunately compelled by circumstances to make this presentation in the virtual format. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed, in totally unimaginable ways, how societies, economies and institutions operate.
The year 2020 was a period most of us would like to forget in a hurry, primarily because of horrendous effects, which the coronavirus pandemic has had over humanity throughout the world. The pandemic that we are currently experiencing is by far the most severe global crisis after World War II. Throughout the last ten-odd months of 2020, all we heard was news of misery, deaths and fear. Our lives have taken a massive shock and we still do not know when we will be able to get back to normalcy again. However, a new year is waiting for us and there is hope as well as some real evidence that things will start to get better relatively soon. As we leave the unpleasant memories of 2020 behind, it is important to feel positive about the future and it would be good to spread some positivity around, whatever the doomsayers around us may say.