(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's central bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said he is resigning, only hours after all government ministers offered to step down amid the nation's worst economic and political crises in decades.
The resignation was submitted to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Cabraal said in a Twitter post Monday. It wasn't immediately clear if the president had accepted the offer.
Cabraal, a veteran policy maker who was named governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in September amid a deepening foreign exchange crisis, favored reducing reliance on foreign debt, especially from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.
His resignation follows the nation's cabinet of ministers offering to resign en masse following protests over the weekend against soaring living costs and shortage of fuel and essential goods as the government runs out of funds for imports.
Cabraal's announcement comes a day before the central bank is scheduled to announce an interest rate decision. Since returning as head of the CBSL, Cabraal has added to rate hikes -- raising by a total 200 basis points from the pandemic-era low -- to combat Asia's fastest inflation.
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