Lanka's new central bank chief vows to uphold its credibility

Sri Lanka's new central bank chief Indrajit Coomaraswamy today assumed charge and pledged to work independently and uphold its credibility amid allegations that the office of the governor had become politicised.
The 66-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil economist also said that the responsibility of the central bank was to create a sound macro-economic fundamentals with financial sector stability.
"The government elected by the people have sovereignty, reposed in them. However, the monetary law sets out some very specific responsibilities in the central bank. It is up to us to fulfil those responsibilities in a technocratic, objective and free way. That is not to say we should be criticising the government of the day. That is not our business. But there are channels through which we can get independence advice to the government," he said.

Coomaraswamy became the 14th governor of the central bank and will have a six-year term.
He replaced Arjuna Mahendran whose term was not extended by President Maithripala Sirisena who bowed to pressure to replace him after he was accused of leaking information to his son-in-law's firm, which allegedly made millions of dollars in profits from central bank bond auctions.
"I have spoken to our leaders about this - that the central bank does its work independently and in a technical way and discreetly advises the government but what we think is the best way forward for those segments of policy and practice for which the central bank has responsibility," he said.

Coomaraswamy said the bank was "one of the great institutions in this country".

"I am acutely aware that a primary responsibility, arguably the primary responsibility of the governor, is to uphold this reputation and credibility," said the 66-year-old former director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, an intergovernmental agency of Commonwealth countries in London.
Since 1948, the central bank had allowed politics to trump economics for most of its life and it has not stop creating artificial booms.
Mahendran has consistently maintained his innocence and had indicated he wanted to stay on after his term expired on June 30.