Deshamanya Indrajit Coomaraswamy (Tamil: இந்திரஜித் குமாரசுவாமி, Sinhala: ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි; born 3 April 1950) is a Sri Lankan economist. He served as the 14th Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.^[1][2]

Coomaraswamy was born on 3 April 1950 in Colombo, Ceylon.^[3][4] He was the son of civil servant Rajendra Coomaraswamy (Roving Raju) and Wijeyamani.^[5][6][7] His paternal grandfather C. Coomaraswamy was a civil servant and his maternal grandfather S. K. Wijeyaratnam was chairman of Negombo Urban Council.^[5][7][8] He has one sister, Radhika.^[5][6] Coomaraswamy was educated at Royal College, Colombo and at Harrow School in England.^[7][9][10] He was captain of Royal's primary cricket team.^[8] He was captain of Harrow's cricket team from 1967 to 1968 and also played rugby for the school for three years.^[4][11]

After school he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from where he received BA (Hons) and MA degrees.^[7][9][12] He played two matches of first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club, one in 1971 and one in 1972.^[3][13] He then proceeded to the University of Sussex from where he obtained a DPhil degree.^[7][9][12]

Coomaraswamy is married to Tara de Fonseka.^[13] They have two sons – Imran and Arjun.^[13] Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan Tamil.

Coomaraswamy joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1973, working as a staff officer in its Economic Research, Statistics and Bank Supervision divisions until 1989.^{[7][9][13][14]} He was seconded to the Ministry of Finance and Planning between 1981 and 1989 to provide advice on macroeconomic issues and structural reforms.^{[7][9][13][14][15]} He worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat from 1990 to 2008, holding various posts including Chief Officer, Economics in the International Finance and Markets Section; Director of the Economic Affairs Division; and Deputy-Director of the Secretary-General's Office.^{[7][9][13][14]} He was an advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Project Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology Milinda Moragoda between 2001 and 2002.^[15]

Coomaraswamy rejoined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2010 as Interim Director of its Social Transformation Programme Division.^{[7][9][13][14]} He was special advisor to the controversial Galleon Group hedge fund.^[14] He was director of a British company called Galleon Research Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Galleon International Management LLC.^[16][17] He was appointed as a non-executive director of John Keells Holdings PLC in February 2011.^[13][18] He was appointed as a director of Tokyo Cement Group in March 2011.^[13][15][19] He worked briefly for Hatton National Bank and was a director of SEEDS (Guarantee) Limited.^[12][15][20] He was a member of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura's Board of Study (Public Administration) and a director of Nawaloka College of Higher Studies.^[21][22] He was later a senior advisor to Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama.^[23][24]

Coomaraswamy was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July 2016, replacing Arjuna Mahendran whose tenure was mired by allegations of corruption.^[10][25][26] He resigned from the position in December 2019.^[27]

Coomaraswamy played rugby for Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club and captained the national team in the 1974 Rugby Asiad.^[8][11][13] He also played cricket for the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club.^[8][11][13]