Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 18676359" data-attributes="member: 30005">Cabraal’s gamble: Lanka loses billions in bankrupt GreeceBy Our Economic Affairs CorrespondentView(s):A Central Bank investment of about 22 million euros valued last year at more than Rs 3.4 billion in Greek Government Bonds will be lost to Sri Lanka due to the acute economic crisis in that country.This week, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), the parliamentary watchdog that monitors finances in state organisations, learnt that the Auditor General (AG) has questioned the “viability” of the Central Bank’s analysis on “market conditions” and held that this “investment is questionable”.The AG has also noted that at the time the transaction was made, the international rating agency Moody’s had downgraded Greece to “B1”. Even obligations rated “B”, the AG has noted, are considered speculative and subject to high risk.Making matters worse is the AG’s observation that no approval of the Central Bank’s Monetary Board has been obtained for the investment in question. Approval had been given by Governor (Nivard Cabraal), a Deputy Governor and an Assistant Governor “stating that these securities will be added to the high yielding tranche and in general to be kept until maturity��”In their response, the Central Bank did not dispute the colossal loss nor offer answers to the Auditor General’s observations. A statement posted on its website simply claimed that when the investment was made, Greece “had the backing of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) which had�an AAA rating and therefore the Greek Bonds were considered sound even though Greek rating itself was lower than the investment rate.” The Bank said “The investments in Greece Bonds were a small fraction of the Central Bank total Europe portfolio and the loss of the Greek bonds was comfortably offset by higher returns from other investments.”The Central Bank investment on Greek Government Bonds had a face value of 30 million euros. That was for a real investment of 22,163,500 euros (or Rs 3,472,576,045) on April 5 last year. A shocked COPE Chairman and Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera had asked Governor Cabraal whether he did not realise that Greece was headed for economic ruin when the investment was made.- <a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120708/news/cabraals-gamble-lanka-loses-billions-in-bankrupt-greece-5565.html" target="_blank">http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120708/news/cabraals-gamble-lanka-loses-billions-in-bankrupt-greece-5565.html</a></blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

Top Bottom