Sri Lanka foreign reserves drop by USD395mn in Oct: Central Bank

Nov 11, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s official reserves dropped 394.6 million US dollars to 6.1 billion dollars in October, down from 6.5 billion dollars at the end of September, official Central Bank data showed. Foreign currency reserves were 5.1 billion US dollars and reserves in Gold were 0.91 billion US dollars. Central Bank has purchased 88.3 million dollars of foreign exchange from commercial banks at market rates in October while selling 163.8 million dollars in the month. The Central Bank’s Treasury Bill holdings were down from 213.

3 billion rupees in September to 179.3 billion rupees in October. During the year up to 11 November 2016 the rupee has depreciated against the US dollar by 2.5 percent. Given the cross currency exchange rate movements, the Sri Lanka rupee has appreciated against the sterling pound by 15.1 percent. It has depreciated against Indian rupee by 1.

9 percent, Japanese yen by 13.9 percent and euro by 2.4 percent during this period.