Government has printed over 1625 billion from Jan. 2020-March 2022

After the current government came into power a total of Rs. 1625.24 billion had been printed from January 2020 to 20th March 2022 former Governor Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon has said.

He warned that Sri Lanka was already experiencing hyperinflation and if the Central Bank continued to print money without control, it would inevitably lead to dynamic inflation.

He pointed out that the Central Bank had printed 188,610 million rupees from February 28 to March 18, 2022, which is an average of Rs.9,926.8 million rupees printed per day.

Tennakoon said that in an interview with a newspaper, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has said that printing money does not increase the price of goods and that it is normal. Since taking over as the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivad Cabraal has said that Rs. 4156.1 billion had been printed.

He pointed out that Rs. 55,950 million was printed last Friday (18th) and the present government has in the last 26 months printed 23 times as much as it printed in the 62 years from 1952 to 2020, he said.

He said that since the current government came to power, milk powder prices have risen by 110 percent, fuel prices by 90 percent and food prices by 20 to 50 percent.