I have not seen any comments on “the Sri Lanka Central Bank reserve management profits are the highest in the world for 2011”

Have I not seen any laughs at the above statement that appeared on Sunday’s Observer because it is so farcical or because no one reads the papers today? That CBSL had the nerve to even make a statement by using a series of percentages is stupifying. Any finance man worth his salt knows that percentages can be deceptive. 100% increase of Rs1 is Rs 1, but a 1% increase from 1 trillion is 10Billion. So it is to this logic that a Rs1 CBSL of Ajit Nivard Cabral stoops to put a press release by comparing our 6.6% on a tiny reserve to the .9% of the Federal Reserve Bank, USA. I do not wish to go into all the percentages of all the central banks all over the world but just to say that we seem to find daily statistics to suit and fool our foolish reader.

I had a person of some education tell me that our stock market was the world’s best performing for last week, (a few weeks ago) when in fact in terms of the overall performance this year it is pretty low on the scale. So picking on a week, the world’s worst performing market if it gains 10% from a very low base can claim to be the world’s top.

I plead with journalists to stop reporting such misleading news items as it just disgraces this country and their profession. Do they not have any self respect for their craft?  It is time we educate people that most of the information put out by this government is just false propaganda aimed at fooling people inside Sri Lanka. Those living overseas will not be fooled by such claptrap. It is therefore traitorous to report such incorrect so called facts that are believed primarily by gullible Sri Lankans. I know it is done deliberately, but I do not accept that it should be so.

The article goes on to use the words, “the CBSL made a massive profit of US$430M from its reserve management”. How much of that is luck, or due to changes in the exchange rate not at all under the control of the CBSL? I am not privy enough to the breakdown of the profit to comment, but it would not surprise me if that is the case.

In a world already rife with disinformation, misinformation, and attempts at hoodwinking a gullible public in all aspects of life, it must be incumbent upon the government not to add to this deception. Let us hope that those whose business is to hoodwink their bosses, like Cabraal trying to hoodwink MR into believing he is good, stop this nonsense!!! They kid themselves!!