Sri Lanka's Reserves Jump by $600M in Just Three Months

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Gross Official Reserves stood at US dollars 5.0 billion by end March 2024, a notable increase compared to the US dollars 4.4 billion as at end 2023.

According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, this included the swap facility from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) equivalent to around US dollars 1.5 billion, which is subject to conditionalities on usability.

The increase of the Gross Official Reserves was mainly due to the substantial net purchases of foreign exchange from the domestic foreign exchange market by the Central Bank.

Net intervention in March 2024 was US dollars 715 million, and during the first quarter of 2024, the net purchases amounted to US dollars 1.2 billion.

Import coverage of Gross Official Reserves, including the PBOC swap, remained above 3 months of imports since December 2023.