Official reserves tops US$ 3.9b

The gross official reserves of the country, which had already exceeded US $ 3.3 billion by August 25, increased to its highest ever level of over US $ 3.9 billion with the new SDR allocation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On August 7, 2009, in response to the call by the G-20 Heads of State and the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee, the Board of Governors of the IMF approved a general allocation of SDRs equivalent to US dollars 250 billion among all the member countries based on their quota with the IMF, to be made on August 28, 2009.

The purpose of such fresh allocation was to strengthen the international reserves of all member countries in order to face any liquidity constraints due to global financial crisis. Through this general allocation, Sri Lanka’s official reserve position was boosted by about SDRs 307 million (approximately US $ 475 million).

Accordingly, the gross official reserves (without ACU balances) of the country have now exceeded the previous highest ever level of US $ 3,558 million and reached US dollars 3.9 billion which is equivalent approximately to finance 4.2 months of imports.