Central Bank slams IMF

Central Bank top officials will address the issue of what they call ‘irresponsible reports’ by a staffer from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding Sri Lanka which have been circulated in the media recently.

“A working paper done by an IMF staff member on Sri Lanka recently had a lot of technical failures. Firstly, there is a danger in saying that it is an IMF research. When someone was irresponsible enough to compile a wrong working paper the media was equally irresponsible to pick it up as an IMF research. I will take it up with the IMF top management when I visit them,” Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor Central Bank noted at a media briefing, post the regulator’s annual report launch. The working paper, widely reported in the media, appears in the IMF website with the disclaimer saying it doesn’t reflect the views of the IMF. Dr. P.N. Weerasinghe, Central Bank’s Director Economic Research, pointed out that it was a working paper and yet to be developed into a proper research. The paper was compiled by IMF staff member, Nombulelo Duma. “There are technical weaknesses in the model and the way they have done the study. I could have proved the opposite of what was done with the same model,” Dr. Weerasinghe said. He added that the model has explained only 25 percent of the variation of inflation. “Any model that has failed to explain at leas 75 percent of the variable is unsuccessful. It is highly unacademic work,” he further said. Cabraal pointed out that the IMF is dealing with sovereign nations and that they need to be more responsible.“People who do not have the capacity to understand the model that was used, say uncharitable remarks. There are none so blind as those who do not wish to see,” he added.