Central Bank acquires Gold from IMF

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has been acquiring Gold from the international market over the past several months as a part of the diversification of the external assets portfolio of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) into various safe financial instruments.

Many central banks maintain a certain portion of its external reserves in Gold, since Gold is one of the commodities which provides an anchor for long term stability of reserve assets, a media release from the Central Bank said.

In keeping with this objective, the Central Bank recently acquired 10 metric tons of Gold from the International Monetary Fund.

Through such acquisition, the long-term stability of Sri Lanka's external reserves will be strengthened, since the Gold holdings will provide a stable and long-term cushion against the impact of any potential volatility in major international currencies and financial instruments, in international financial markets.

The gross official reserves of Sri Lanka now exceed US dollars 5.2 billion, which is sufficient to finance 6.4 months of imports, the release said.