11 March 2024: Standard Chartered Bank’s Global Research team conducted its 2024 H1 Global Research Briefing (GRB) in Sri Lanka recently, themed ‘A soft landing, with risks’. The event took place on 4 March at the Galle Face Hotel Colombo and was attended by corporate, commercial and institutional banking clients of the Bank. It provided a valuable platform for participants to gain insights on the global and Sri Lankan economic outlooks for the first half of 2024.
The briefing opened with welcome remarks from Anuk De Silva, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing at Standard Chartered Sri Lanka, followed by an opening address by Bingumal Thewarathanthri, CEO of Standard Chartered Sri Lanka. Central Bank Governor, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, delivered the keynote speech.
During his keynote address, the Governor commented on the country’s overall growth and the future inflation trends. Dr. Weerasinghe also elaborated on the importance of fiscal and other policy reforms, and strategies to mitigate future domestic and external risks by building on the country’s reserves. He also spoke of how Sri Lanka is expected to have a turnaround with a positive growth momentum in 2024 and how the Central Bank is hoping to maintain the inflation at 5% in the medium to long-term basis to aid growth.
The Global Research team focused on economic trends, strategies and views for the year ahead. The thought-provoking sessions were conducted by Kaushik Rudra, Global Head of Fixed Income Research and Head of Asia Research at Standard Chartered, who presented the global economic outlook for 2024. This was followed by the Sri Lanka outlook for 2024 presented by Standard Chartered’s Saurav Anand, Economist – South Asia.
Presenting the global economic outlook, the Standard Chartered research team noted that in 2024, global growth is expected to face persistent challenges from elevated rates, sub-par global trade volumes, and geopolitical tensions. The year is anticipated to be defined by a shift from monetary tightening to a more neutral monetary stance for global central banks. As divergence under the surface continues and the USD and US rates stabilise, emerging markets may experience pockets of improved performance. However, the new challenge for economies and markets in the year ahead may be election risk.
Turning to Sri Lanka, the team stated that Sri Lanka’s economy showed a strong recovery in 2023 following the IMF deal, and the economic recovery is expected to continue in 2024, with a focus on commercial debt restructuring. However, the potential election risk could create challenges for Sri Lanka in the year ahead.
Bingumal Thewarathanthri, CEO of Standard Chartered Sri Lanka said, “Standard Chartered is firmly committed to supporting Sri Lanka amidst economic headwinds. We are fully dedicated to assisting the government’s endeavours, and we believe that debt restructuring, and collaborative efforts will achieve positive outcomes for the country. Despite the current uncertainties, we are optimistic for a brighter economic future and remain hopeful of achieving sustainable growth and prosperity.”
A panel discussion moderated by Tamani Dias, Standard Chartered Sri Lanka’s Head of Local & International Corporates, enabled clients to receive further insights from the panellists on economic issues and perspectives. The GRB concluded with an interactive Q&A session.
