Sri Lanka’s growth rate in past two years disturbed after GDP rebasing: Nivard Cabraal
July 14, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s GDP growth rate in the past two years have been disturbed by a sinister action of politicians, former Governor of the Central Bank charged.
Former Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal speaking at a special press briefing told reporters Tuesday that the new growth rate of 9.1 percent for 2012 is not a reasonable number.
“2012 was a year where the economy was deliberately controlled to some extent; with the credit squeeze that we had as well as the rupee being allowed to depreciate further; So there were certain controls,” Cabraal said.
“So that year the growth could have not gone up from 6.3 percent to 9.1 percent. It’s not reasonable. So the growth actually would have taken place in the latter years,”
“The growth rate in 2013 and 2014 has now been disturbed. That is where I see some political action.”
The statistics department recently released new GDP figures after rebasing its estimates from 2002 to 2010.
The growth rate for last year has been reduced from 7.4 percent to 4.5 percent and the growth in 2013 has been reduced from 7.2 percent to 3.4 percent.
“In 2013 and 2014 there is an economic activity that has not been captured. The totality of our GDP was understated by about 600 billion. Now it was captured and it’s fine,”
“But when allocating this growth, I think it has all gone into 2012 instead of being taken some part into 2013 and 2014. I see a little bit of sinister action there,” Cabraal further said.
Former Deputy Minister of Policy Planning Harsha de Silva holding a press conference earlier stated that the significant reduction in growth rate numbers was the reason behind the delay of changing the base year in due time.
Usually the base year should be revised once in five years with the view of reflecting the changes in the economy.
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LOL.
that is silly. UK is going to China becoz they dont want to miss out , not becoz they want $$$. they are a rich country compared to sri lanka so they have bargaining power. UK has aspirations of being a world power like usa and russia. they know china is a threat to that. keep ur friends close and ur enemies closer ….
as paupers we have no bargaining power. that is why the chinese managed to get a land in sri lanka. do u know that in australia special laws were brought in just to stop the chinese buying up property in sydney ???
true the chinese have money – and unlike the arabs who flaunt it with gold cars and exotic animals and scores of women , they work like terrorists , buying up assets in a covert way . oneday u will wake up and find that most of the land is owned by the chinese , with their buying power. maybe u can try naming how many countries that can say there are no chinese living there. i doubt out of the 220 or countries in the world even 20 can say that. u find chinese even in saudi arabia and that is hell to live in.
australia has land to melt and wash off to the sea , but still they are taking precautions. does sri lanka have enuf land for its natives?
the mistake MR did was to cut off the japs. if u look at most of our infrastructure (aside from the victoria and related projects) japs and JAIKA have given it. even now its not too late to get them abroad.
what is this 600Bn understatement of GDP? is this correct?
If base year is to change every FIVE years, then the new base year should be 2007 (2002 plus 5 years) for 2007-2012, and 2012 for last two years, not 2010.
You have to be ‘consistent’ with the five year change in base years if you are going to claim politics as the reason for the delay.