Sept 03, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will receive the balance 1.1 billion dollars from the Reserve Bank of India to boost foreign reserves under a 1.5 billion dollar swap arrangement, the Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran confirmed to Lanka Business Online.
On April 30th, Sri Lanka obtained 400 million dollars under this arrangement, which is available from the RBI to SAARC member countries, to increase foreign reserves.
The Central Bank said during the release of its monthly monetary policy announcement, earlier this week, that the swap arrangement would boost foreign reserves.
“The realisation of the remaining proceeds of the currency swap arrangement with the Reserve Bank of India amounting of US dollars 1.1 billion and long term financial flows to the government, including the planned term loan of US dollars 500 million,” will support official reserves, the central bank said.
In a statement Thursday, the central bank said that consequent to the signing of a special currency swap agreement with the RBI on 17 July 2015, the central bank received 1.1 billion dollars on Thursday, 03 September, 2015.
“With the enhanced level of official reserves, the CBSL expects that the exchange rate would stabilize in line with sound macroeconomic fundamentals and movements of other currencies of major trading partners,” the statement said.