ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's 'Yahapalanaya' administration which promised 'good governance' has started to re-publish monthly fiscal data, ending practice of data suppression that began in the last stages of the ousted Rajapaksa regime.
Disseminating monthly fiscal data, a practice dating back almost two decades was ended during the last stages of the ousted Rajapaksa administration.
The practice of publishing monthly budget data was started by then Central Bank Governor A S Jayewardne (who was also a Treasury Secretary) who build a working monetary transmission mechanism with monthly policy rate announcements.
Jayewardene inherited a bad budget, with desperate handouts promised by an outgoing United National Party administration.
He tightened monetary policy and current Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva, then at DFCC Bank was reputed to have been on the sell side of the overnight money market deal done at the highest rate in the financial history of the country.
Economic data was also released regularly allowing market participants to make decisions.
Observers will watch with interest how long current Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Treasury Secretary R H S Samaratunga, a public servant who works without much fanfare, will continue the practice.
Sri Lanka's budget numbers are far from favourable this year.
Sri Lanka was late in publishing the half yearly fiscal position report in 2015 under the country's fiscal responsibility law, though similar data was released earlier, in a pre-budget report.
Under Jayewardene, International Monetary Fund reports were also made public, which unfortunately continued to be suppressed.
He ended decades of false doctrine where people were led to believe that inflation was an inevitable consequence of growth, and instead said inflation harmed the poor most and also de-stabilized conditions for growth.
No newspaper was willing to publish his weekly data, until then editor of Daily News, Manik de Silva started publishing them. Ironically the data was suppressed amid increased media attention during the latter stages of the last regime.
Jayewardene, also started auctions of Treasury bills to the public to end printing money, which was the core source economic instability, currency depreciation and inflation in the country, established the primary dealer system.
Backed by Deputy Governor W A Wijewardene a secondary market in government securities was also built with primary dealers being licensed.
In 1997, when the East Asia crisis hit the region, the Sri Lanka rupee remained strong, thanks to the prudent monetary policy followed by the Central Bank at the time. But after 2000 with fuel subsidies and an intensified war, monetization led to a balance of payments crisis.
Market participants vividly recall the day in January 2001 when the rupee was floated with a 300 basis point rate hike.
Disseminating monthly fiscal data, a practice dating back almost two decades was ended during the last stages of the ousted Rajapaksa administration.
The practice of publishing monthly budget data was started by then Central Bank Governor A S Jayewardne (who was also a Treasury Secretary) who build a working monetary transmission mechanism with monthly policy rate announcements.
Jayewardene inherited a bad budget, with desperate handouts promised by an outgoing United National Party administration.
He tightened monetary policy and current Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva, then at DFCC Bank was reputed to have been on the sell side of the overnight money market deal done at the highest rate in the financial history of the country.
Economic data was also released regularly allowing market participants to make decisions.
Observers will watch with interest how long current Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Treasury Secretary R H S Samaratunga, a public servant who works without much fanfare, will continue the practice.
Sri Lanka's budget numbers are far from favourable this year.
Sri Lanka was late in publishing the half yearly fiscal position report in 2015 under the country's fiscal responsibility law, though similar data was released earlier, in a pre-budget report.
Under Jayewardene, International Monetary Fund reports were also made public, which unfortunately continued to be suppressed.
He ended decades of false doctrine where people were led to believe that inflation was an inevitable consequence of growth, and instead said inflation harmed the poor most and also de-stabilized conditions for growth.
No newspaper was willing to publish his weekly data, until then editor of Daily News, Manik de Silva started publishing them. Ironically the data was suppressed amid increased media attention during the latter stages of the last regime.
Jayewardene, also started auctions of Treasury bills to the public to end printing money, which was the core source economic instability, currency depreciation and inflation in the country, established the primary dealer system.
Backed by Deputy Governor W A Wijewardene a secondary market in government securities was also built with primary dealers being licensed.
In 1997, when the East Asia crisis hit the region, the Sri Lanka rupee remained strong, thanks to the prudent monetary policy followed by the Central Bank at the time. But after 2000 with fuel subsidies and an intensified war, monetization led to a balance of payments crisis.
Market participants vividly recall the day in January 2001 when the rupee was floated with a 300 basis point rate hike.
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