Former Governor Cabraal resoundingly fails in assessing the success of CBSL Road Map

Fact Check

In his statement, former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Cabraal, claimed that the six-month road map of the CBSL has been a resounding success, particularly with expected inflows materialising one month before the expiry of the road map.  

To check this claim, FactCheck.lk compared the fourteen quantifiable targets for the government and CBSL outlined in the six-month plan against the actual numbers from the CBSL and other sources for the period starting from 1 October 2021 to 28 February 2022.  

Exhibit 1 shows that of the six key quantifiable economic targets mentioned in the plan, none had been achieved by the end of February, at the time the former governor made his statement.  

Exhibit 2 shows that of the eight secondary targets in the plan there is evidence of only one being achieved. Four targets on debt financing have not been achieved, and there is no information available on three.   

Since the government has failed to achieve all of the six key targets, failed on four of the eight secondary targets and succeeded in only one (with no information on the rest) it is doubly inappropriate to evaluate the roadmap as a success. 

Therefore, we classify his statement as BLATANTLY FALSE. 

NB: Only targets that can be assessed with a quantitative measure by the end of February 2022 were assessed in this factcheck. Targets on real GDP growth and ISB exposure were not assessed as the GDP data was not released for the year 2021 at the time of assessing the statement.  

*FactCheck.lk’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck.lk will revisit the assessment.