Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka speaking to Bloomberg, stated that it is too early to quantify the impact of the attacks, however the tourism sector, which was doing extremely well, will be affected.

He further commented, “Clearly this was a horrific act which is beyond comprehension for the terrible loss of life. However I think one thing that must be said about the Sri Lankan economy and Sri Lankan people is that they demonstrated a great deal of resilience. We went through a thirty years of a conflict and came through it. We have had ten years of excellent peace and stability in the country and this was a bolt out of the blue. Clearly, there would an impact. But as I said, these types of terrorist acts are something that Sri Lankan people have had to experience in the past and that showed a great deal of courage and resilience in dealing with it and the Sri Lankan system is capable of responding, and I’m sure already we are seeing a great deal of normalcy and the Central Bank is working; our payment and settlement systems, international operations, domestic operations are all running, but the country’s financial system will work through day-to-day. So, things are already normal in terms of the everyday operations of the country’s financial systems.”

He added, “The ‘Lonely Planet Guide’ had ranked Sri Lanka number 1. We saw significant improvement in terms of tourist arrival and earnings last year and the bookings this year so far have been very good. Undoubtedly, that will get affected. However, the tourism sector and the hospitality sector over the 30 years have gained a great deal of experience and expertise in how to keep people safe. Those processes and procedures will be kicked off again. They will be put back in place. I’m confident that we can provide security for those people who will be visiting Sri Lanka, and that is already is happening. I’m confident that we will be able to cope with the situation going forward. But of course, there will be a hit to tourism.”