Dr Razeen Sally is the author of this paper and he is also the Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies, a key think tank in his native Sri Lanka which advises the Sri Lankan government on economic policies.

This paper is an edited version of a speech delivered by Dr Razeen Sally at IDEAS’ Liberalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur on 19 September 2015. This one-day conference was designed to discuss the trends, challenges and future prospects of liberalism in Malaysia, with invited speakers from all sides of the socio-political divide. The title of the panel discussion for which this speech was delivered was “Economic Liberalism: Curse or Cure?” This paper was originally published in Quadrant Magazine.