Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves stood at US$ 4,500 million as of January this year, according to the Central Bank. About US$ 1.4 billion of the reserves is a Chinese yuan-denominated swap.
Meanwhile, President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently said in Parliament that the amount of foreign exchange reserves that can be used at the moment has increased up to US$ 3 billion. “The amount of usable foreign exchange reserves, which was less than US$ 20 million in mid-April 2022, has increased to more than US$ 3 billion at present,” the President said in Parliament.
The main reason for the increase in gross official reserves is the Central Bank’s significant purchase of foreign exchange from the domestic and foreign exchange markets on a net basis. In total, the Central Bank has purchased about US$ 245 million on a net basis in January this year.
Mahinda Aluthgedara