Sri Lanka can boost its reserves by drawing down on a US$ 400 million foreign exchange SWAP with the Reserve Bank of India in August 2021, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said.
CBSL Governor W D Lakshman told reporters that the SWAP deal available for SAARC countries was initially signed by Sri Lanka in 2020, and was repaid in February 2021 after rolling it over once.
Stating that a couple more drawings are available for Sri Lanka, the CBSL Governor said authorities have to wait for a cooling-off period of six months after the completion of the first couple of drawings.
W D Lakshman further said therefore, the next drawing for Sri Lanka will be available in August 2021.
Commenting on the SWAP deals that have been approved with Bangladesh banks, the CBSL Governor said the process is proceeding rapidly with several requirements being fulfilled, adding that the SWAP agreement could be received as early as within the next one month.
According to the data issued by the CBSL, Sri Lanka had 4.4 billion US dollars of reserves in April 2021. (NewsWire)
