Echelon Magazine - November 2024

In this issue

Money Printing or Not?

The Central Bank is under renewed scrutiny over its use of open market operations (OMO) to manage liquidity, sparking a debate over whether these actions equate to money printing that could destabilize the economy. Critics contend that OMOs—by expanding money in circulation—risk inflation and foreign exchange stress, especially as private lending recovers.
Historically, direct purchases of government securities in the primary market are linked to inflationary pressures and discouraged. Our columnist Bellwether has argued in a recent piece for EconomyNext that OMO could pose similar risks, as increased bank reserves from these injections can stimulate lending and imports, putting strain on reserves in our managed exchange rate regime.
The Central Bank, however, asserts that its OMOs primarily address liquidity shortfalls, comparing its actions to the U.S. Fed’s repo operations, which aim to stabilize rates without adding long-term inflationary pressure.
Finding a balance is crucial. While controlled liquidity boosts can support economic recovery, excessive intervention risks igniting the instability policymakers aim to prevent. With a new-look administration in place aiming to change the political-economic culture of Sri Lanka, it appears fundamental issues remain.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.