Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves at US$8.9bn in April 2014

The central bank has been buying dollars heavily in the forex market as weak credit curtailed imports and the trade gap narrowed, amid a pick-up in exports.

In April, the government the government also sold a 500 million US dollars sovereign bond, the proceeds of which will generate imports in the future.

The Central Bank said there was a 'balance of payments surplus' of 1.544 billion US dollars in the first four months of the year, up from 352 million US dollars a year earlier.

The Central Bank had bought 550 million US dollars from forex markets to prevent the rupee from appreciating and to build up reserves.