Sri Lanka foreign reserves up USD125mn in August: Central Bank

Sept 12, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s official reserves rose 124.7 million US dollars to 6.6 billion dollars in August, up from 6.5 billion dollars end of July, official Central Bank data showed. Foreign currency reserves were 5.6 billion US dollars, and reserves in Gold were 0.94 billion US dollars. Central Bank has purchased 190.8 million dollars of foreign exchange from commercial banks at market rates in August while selling 57.

6 million dollars in the month. In July, the Central Bank purchased 204.6 million dollars from commercial banks and sold 53.

9 million dollars. The Central Bank's Treasury Bill holdings fell from 273.5 billion rupees to 212.4 billion rupees in August. Data also showed that during the eight months to August the Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated against the US dollar by 1.0 percent. Sri Lanka rupee appreciated against the pound sterling by 10.5 percent, in the eight months to August. The rupee depreciated against Indian rupee by 0.5 percent, Japanese yen by 15.0 percent and euro by 3.4 percent during this period.