HOW THE NPP GOVT. STABILISED THE ECONOMY BY NOT DELIVERING RUINOUS ELECTION PROMISES

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was quoted as saying in one of those election rallies: “It usually takes a decade for a bankrupt nation to make an economic comeback. But we have been able to turn around the Sri Lankan economy within a surprisingly short time.”

- By Ranga Jayasuriya

This is both true and false.

True because Sri Lanka has shown a surprising degree of resilience through its darkest days of economic crisis. The country has risen from the nadir far quicker than the economic pundits and multi-lateral agencies have forecasted. After two consecutive years of negative growth, the economy expanded by 5% in the year 2024, and is projected to grow at a heady rate this year as well.

It is also true that the country is still not out of the woods, and fiscal consolidation is an ongoing endeavour. Finally, the country has to pay restructured loans from 2028, some until 2042.

It is false because it was not the JVP/NPP that steered the economy through its worst-ever crisis to a safer refuge. Like it or not, it was the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe who lost his presidential bid to Dissanayake.

Wickremesinghe did not get the credit for stabilising the economy. Instead, the average Sri Lankan voter, who earlier voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa family autocracy over a decade, was angry with Wickremesinghe for the austerity measures.

They voted en masse to Dissanayake, who glided to victory over a high wave of the protest vote.