COLOMBO (News 1^st) – Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy has said Sri Lanka will end 2018 with gross official reserves of 9.5 billion US Dollars while further cutting its exposure to short-term swaps by another 700 – 800 million US Dollars.

An article published in the Daily Mirror today, quotes the Central Bank Governor at an event last week as saying, ‘Sri Lanka’s forex reserves stood at US $8.7  billion as of last week and are expected to improve by a further US $2 billion over the next few weeks.’

Inflows from recently finalised eight-year plan include,

• China Development Bank’s US$ 1 billion syndicated loan,
• Recently approved US$ 246.7 million IMF’s fifth tranche Extended Fund Facility
• Pending lease rental of US $585 million for the Hambanthota port which would account for this US $ 2 billion

The governor of the Central Bank has pointed out that the country’s forex reserves have been gradually improving both in volume and in quality. According to Dr Coomaraswamy, Sri Lanka’s Forex reserves stood at approximately US $6 billion by the end of 2016 and were improved to US $7 billion by the end of last year.

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