Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves reach USD 3.1 billion - CB Governor

Colombo, Dec 29 (AdaDerana) – The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Ajith Nivard Cabraal says that Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves today reached approximately USD 3.1 billion.

He also said that the official reserve position of the Central Bank will remain around that level by the end of the year.

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“In keeping with our previous announcements, the official reserve position of the CBSL has today reached appox USD 3.1 billion and will remain around that level by end 2021 as well,” the governor tweeted.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said last week that measures being taken at present will ensure that by the end of 2021 official reserves will remain above USD 3 billion.

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Since the beginning of the year, both the Central Bank and the Government have been actively pursuing possible avenues to replenish official reserves, with an emphasis on encouraging non-debt flows, so that the existing foreign debt could be managed in a sustainable manner, it had said.

These efforts were accelerated since October 2021 with the announcement of the ‘Six-Month Road Map for Ensuring Macroeconomic and Financial System Stability’, which set out envisaged targets for build up of official reserves in the near term.

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Major foreign exchange inflows to the Central Bank include SWAP facilities with Middle Eastern and other regional central banks amounting to about US dollars 2.0 billion.

It said the Government is also in the process of securing Government to Government financing, syndicated loans as well as loans from multilateral organisations.

In addition, the expected foreign exchange facilities that were negotiated during the high-level visits abroad made by authorities are also progressing well, the central bank had said.