Foreign reserves increased by 27 percent

Uditha KUMARASINGHE and Irangika RANGE

Finance and State Revenue Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told Parliament yesterday that the foreign reserves of Sri Lanka had been increased by 27 percent during the last two months following the end to the war.

As a result of creating a peaceful environment conducive for foreign investment, Sri Lanka is now recovering from its foreign reserves crisis. Meanwhile, a gradual decrease of imports and developing the foreign exchange market had also resulted in the increasing in foreign reserves. The Minister was responding to an oral question raised by UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella.

He further said that the Gross Official Reserves without Asian Clearing Union (ACU) rose to its highest level of US $ 3,558 million by end July 2008 while the Gross Official Reserves with ACU rose to its highest level of US $ 4,204 million by end August 2008.

With the successful completion of Sri Lanka's Debut International Bond issue in October 2007 and the absorption of foreign exchange from the market during the early part of 2008 with the further liberation of Government Treasury Bond and opening up of Government Treasury Bills Market led the Gross Official Reserves to that level.