$808 million balance gap is only a Balance of Payments reporting discrepancy, Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe tells COPF.
$808 million balance gap claims spreading on social media are baseless and false, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe has said.
The Governor clarified that the figure recorded under “Errors and Omissions” in Sri Lanka’s Balance of Payments does not mean money has been lost by the Central Bank or by any other party.
He made the statement while responding to a question raised by Committee on Public Finance Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva in Parliament.
Explaining the matter, Dr. Weerasinghe said that when preparing a Balance of Payments statement, it is practically impossible for the credit and debit columns to match perfectly and produce a zero value.
He said import and export goods data is accurately recorded by Customs, but matching those entries with millions of corresponding banking transactions is difficult for any country.
According to the Governor, the $808 million figure is entered as a balancing item in those accounts.
He stressed that it is a data reporting discrepancy, not a financial loss.
“The Central Bank has not lost anything, nor has anyone lost anything. This is merely a discrepancy in data reporting,” the Governor said.
Dr. Weerasinghe explained that timing gaps are one of the main reasons such discrepancies occur.
For example, exports may be recorded immediately through Customs data, but the related export revenue may take several months to enter the country.
That time gap can appear as a discrepancy in the Balance of Payments.
He also noted that the same value was recorded as negative $254 million last year.
In some years, he said, it may appear as a positive figure, a negative figure, or even zero.
The Governor said some parties are misinterpreting the data due to a lack of technical knowledge and are using it to spread false propaganda on social media.
He added that this is a standard technical process familiar to any economics student.
