SL economy on right track, thunders Finance Minister

Sri Lanka’s economy has been “discharged from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)” since the regime change two years ago, an emotionally-charged Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told reporters on Thursday. 
The minister said this, in a heated response to a statement by Central Bank (CB) Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy who had said the local economy is not in the ICU, but in the hospital.  
Dr. Coomaraswamy told reporters on Tuesday that economy is expected to have grown by between 4.5 per cent and 5 percent during last year supported by stronger third and fourth quarter performances, but the economy is not in good shape.  "We are not in the ICU. But we are clearly in hospital as it is under International Monetary Fund (IMF) assistance," he said. 
The Finance Minister, while noting that Dr. Coomaraswamy may have been ‘misquoted’, said that during the time of the Rajapaksa’s, the economy was so distressed that it was in the ICU. “He (Dr. Coomaraswamy) was in the government then,” an upset Mr. Karunanayake said raising his tone. 

His comments came at a media conference to ‘clear the hot air on the Hambantota Port’ which was expected to be leased for 99 years to a firm in which China Merchant Port Holdings will own 80 per  cent.

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