Sri Lanka’s Gross official reserves (GOR) increased to US$ 5 billion by the end of March 2024, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
The CBSL said this included the swap facility from the People’s Bank of China equivalent to around US$ 1.5 billion, which is subject to conditionalities on usability.
The increase in the GOR was mainly due to the substantial net purchases of foreign exchange from the domestic foreign exchange market by the Central Bank.
Net intervention in March 2024 was US$ 715 million, (based on trade date) and during the first quarter of 2024, the net purchases amounted to US$ 1.2 billion.
Import coverage of GOR (including the PBOC swap), remained above 3 months of imports since December 2023.
The CBSL announced the details via its report on Sri Lanka’s External Sector Performance for March 2024.
Full report : https://shorturl.at/flY07 (Newswire)