Dr. D. S. Wijesinghe: A Quantitative Economist's Enduring Legacy on Sri Lanka's Economy 📈

A tribute highlights Dr. D. S. Wijesinghe, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and his profound contributions to the nation's economic policy through rigorous quantitative analysis. • Early Career & Groundbreaking Research: Joining the Central Bank in 1974, Dr. Wijesinghe earned a PhD in Quantitative Economics from the University of Warwick (1983). His thesis, "Some Experiments with a Multisectoral Intertemporal Optimisation Model for Sri Lanka," offered critical insights. • Critique of Public Investment Program (PIP): He found the Government's 1979-84 Public Investment Program (PIP) was "hastily developed," based on judgmental assumptions, and overestimated its goals, leading to concerns about feasibility and foreign funding. • Key Economic Insights: Emphasized efficient investment allocation over mere volume as crucial for economic development. Identified paucity of domestic savings and the need for high foreign exchange flows as binding constraints on growth. Predicted that infeasible public expenditure plans without sufficient foreign funding would lead to high inflation and a foreign exchange crisis – a prediction validated in the early 1980s. Concluded that import substitution policies prior to 1977 were only marginally effective and insufficient for accelerating development. • Missed Opportunity: Lord Nicholas Stern, Dr. Wijesinghe's PhD supervisor at Warwick, noted that the Central Bank denied him a Postdoctoral Fellowship, preventing a greater global academic impact. • Lasting Relevance: Dr. Wijesinghe's research on savings, foreign aid, and optimal development paths remains highly relevant for Sri Lanka's current economic challenges, including the need for sustainable growth and addressing foreign exchange issues.