Sri Lanka to strengthen rupee to 129 in next two weeks: Finance Minister

June 23, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake says the government will strengthen the rupee to 129/130 against the US dollar in the coming two weeks.

“When we tookover the government it was at 133.25 rupees to the US dollar and now it is at 133.
90 rupees,” Karunanayake told reporters Tuesday.

“In two weeks we are bringing it to around 129 and 130 rupees. Large amount of dollars are coming into the country,”

“The country has taken loans more than the sustainable level. So the best thing would be to strengthen the rupee against the US dollar by managing it properly.” Karunanayake said.

The Finance Minister also compared the borrowings taken by the previous government for the first four months of last year against this year.

“For the first four months of 2014, the government has collected over 830 billion rupees as net borrowings from external sources.”

According to the Minister, 384 billion rupees was received from treasury bonds, 66 billion rupees from treasury bills and 47 billion rupees from Sri Lanka development bonds.

36 billion rupees has received through advances from central bank, 29 billion rupees from the bank over draft and 268 billion rupees from foreign loans, Karunanayake said.
Sri Lanka’s new administration has obtained 577 billion rupees net borrowings for the first four months to April 2015.