Western provincial council

He started his political career as a member of the United National Party when he contested the provincial council elections in 1999 and was elected to the Provincial council of the Western Province, a position he held until 2004.^[8]

Chief economic advisor

Having first met Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was studying law at Sri Lanka Law College when Cabraal was an accountancy student, he quickly became a close confidant Rajapaksa after the latter's appointment as Prime Minister Rajapaksa in 2004, and became his chief economic advisor.^[9][2] In 2005, he left the private sector and was appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Plan Implementation.^[10][11] In February 2006, Cabraal was involved in talks with the Tamil Tigers in Geneva.^[10]

He was president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and also held the positions of President of the South Asian Federation of Accountants.^[12]

Governor of the Central Bank - first term

On 1 July 2006, Cabraal was appointed governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka by President Rajapaksa, for a period of four years. He was given an extension of six years from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2016.^[8] During his period as the Governor he also functioned as an Alternate Governor of the International Monetary Fund, the Chairman of the South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Centre (SEACEN) Board of Governors, and the Chairman of the SAARC Central Bank Governors Forum.^[13] Following the 2015 presidential election, he resigned on 9 January 2015 so that the new President of Sri Lanka can appoint a new Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. He was accused of financial misappropriation following investment in Greek sovereign bonds which resulted in a major loss to the government during his first term.^[14]

From December 2019 to August 2020, Cabraal was a senior advisor to the prime minister on economic affairs^[15] and was appointed as a board member of the "Api Wenuwen Api" fund on 21 January 2020 under the Ministry of Defence.^[16]

State Minister of Money and Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reform

Cabraal was appointed to the Parliament of Sri Lanka from the national list of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna after the 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election. He was thereafter appointed State Minister of Finance, Capital Markets and State Enterprise Reforms by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in August 2020 serving under the Minister of Finance Mahinda Rajapaksa. He also functions as a member of the Committee On Public Enterprises (Sri Lanka)^[17] and the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Finance.^[18] He resigned as state minister and member of parliament on 13 September 2020 to take the post of governor of the central bank.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Governor of the Central Bank - second term

Cabraal assumed his second term as governor of the central bank 15 September 2021 at a time Sri Lanka was facing a major debt crisis.^[23][24] He requested for and gained cabinet rank as the Governor of the Central Bank.^[25] During his tenure, Central Bank was engaged in printing in excess of trillions of money to finance the budget and economic crisis.^[26][27][28] During his tenure, CBSL allegedly printed Rs. 22.27 billion rupees overnight on 14 March 2022.^[29]

Cabraal opposed an IMF bailout in favor of a homegrown solution for the debt crisis.^[30] Having depleted foreign currency reserves and gold reserves to boost the Sri Lankan Rupee and repayment of sovereign bonds, the central bank free floated of the currency in early March which saw a 30% depreciation of the Rupee against the dollar in days following major shortages of fuel, food and medicine.^[31][32][33]

On 4 April 2022, he resigned from his position as CBSL governor amid the growing protests over economic crisis.^[34]