Harsha charges Cabraal of misleading public

Says revision of GDP data was started by the previous regime in 2011

By Yohan Perera 
Refuting the claims made by the Vidwath Janatha Pavura led by the officials of the previous regime that the country is suffering an economic downturn, Policy Planning Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva yesterday said the previous regime painted a rosy picture of the development hiding the reality during its time. 

Dr. De Silva said the country did not have a 7 percent economic growth in 2013 and 2014 as the real growth was 3.4 percent and 4.5 percent in the given years, respectively, according to the updated system of computing the growth by using 2010 as the base year. 

The deputy minister said the revision had been done in 2011 during the time of the previous regime but not published as it would have exposed the reality that the economy was not doing well, as the then-government claimed.

He charged Cabraal of trying to mislead the public in the run-up to the August 17 parliamentary elections. 

“Don’t mislead the people. The revision of GDP data was started in 2011 by the former government. They did not disclose the fresh data as it would have been unfavourable to them and pricked the economic ‘bubble’ that has been created.” 

He also refuted the claims made by the Vidwath Janatha Pavura led by former Central Bank Chief Nivard Cabral who said the country is facing a crisis with regard to its foreign reserves. 

On this score, de Silva said the reserves are well over US $ 8 billion with the borrowings, which the government had made in the recent past. He alleged that foreign reserves during the previous regime comprised only funds generated from international bond issues. 

Referring to the claim made by the former Central Bank chief that the rupee had devalued heavily against the dollar, Dr. de Silva said the rupee was devalued up to Rs.130 against the dollar during the last regime. 

Countering another allegation against the previous regime he said it was the last government which introduced fixed interest rate for foreign borrowings though a Cabinet paper replacing the system of floating LIBOR system.