Sri Lanka official reserves improve to USD7.5bn by end October

Nov 13, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves have improved to 7,489.98 million US dollars by end October from 7,288.



12 million dollars in September, official Central Bank data showed. Foreign currency reserves were 6,506.

66 million dollars and reserves in gold were 912.

74 million dollars by end October 2017.

Reserve position in the IMF was 67.22 million dollars. Central Bank’s Treasury bill holdings were down from 57,109.72 million rupees by end September to 42,561.

04 million rupees by end October. Central Bank said its cumulative purchases of foreign exchange from the domestic market exceeded 1.



2 billion dollars on a net basis.

“With increased flexibility in the determination of the exchange rate, the pressure in the domestic foreign exchange market has eased considerably,” the Central Bank said. “This has limited the cumulative depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar to 2.



5 percent in the first 10 months of the year, in comparison to the depreciation of 3.8 percent observed during the year 2016.



” Sri Lanka rupee, however, depreciated against the US dollar by 2.4 percent during the year up to 10 November 2017. The rupee depreciated against the pound sterling by 8.8 percent, euro by 11.7 percent, Japanese yen by 5.0 percent and Indian rupee by 6.



6 percent during the year.