The governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr P Nadalal Weerasinghe on Saturday shared his experience of managing economic policy to restore a degree of respectability to the country's economy at a time when it was down in the doldrums.

Dr Weerasinghe participated in a panel discussion at the 14th South Asian Economic Summit (SAES).

The SAES began in Dhaka on Saturday with the participation of economists, researchers, policymakers, and current and former governors of the central banks of some South Asian countries.

Weerasinghe spoke in the discussion session titled ‘Identifying New Opportunities and New Modalities for Fostering Regional Cooperation in South Asia’ chaired by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD.

In May 2022, Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves were a mere USD 50 million, not enough to cover even one month's imports. However, by June this year, the country's forex reserves surged to an impressive $3.5 billion, he said.

The national inflation was 67.4 percent in September 2022, which has come down below 1 percent, to 0.8 percent in September 2023, Dr Weerasinghe said.

The exchange rate of a dollar against the Sri Lankan Rupee was 369.0309 LKR in September 2022, which decreased to 320 LKR in September 2023, appreciating over 12 percent, he said.

Dr Weerasinghe said that Sri Lanka has made its economy stable by using the central bank’s policy tools like tightening monitoring policy and encouraging remittances in the legal channel.

The economic tools worked properly in Sri Lanka as the central bank enjoyed the freedom to make time-befitting policies, without much political intervention.