18 September 2024 07:24 am Views - 1133
Colombo, September 18 (Daily Mirror) - Independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday stressed that Sri Lanka’s economy will be worse than 2022 if the country deviates from current economic reforms.
He said Sri Lanka should only focus on economic stability alone now while the constitutional reforms should be put to the back seat.
In his final interview with journalists ahead of the September 21 Presidential Election, Wickremesinghe said that the most important thing was to continue with the economic reforms programme which he has undertaken. “Is there an alternative to our programme? There is no other way. The ethnic issue or abolishing of the Executive presidency are not important now. The only issue in this election is the economy. We have managed to maintain some kind of stability. Sustaining it is the only important factor,” Wickremesinghe said.
“You can’t change the agreement which Sri Lanka has signed with the IMF. We have planned the budget for 2025 in accordance with the IMF agreement. JVP has failed to say how they are going to prepare the budget if elected to power. If we deviate from the current economic reforms, the economy will turn into a worse situation than it was in 2022. I was waiting to have a public debate with the NPP and others. They have not invited me for such a debate. It is important to sustain the achievement which Sri Lanka has made to fully emerge from the worst economic crisis it has suffered, the IMF has said. They have said so in their statement which was issued on September 12th this year. IMF is mentioning that Sri Lanka has achieved much since the economic crisis. However, the opposition is denying it,” he added.