Usable forex reserves slide to $50 m from $103 m

Sri Lanka’s usable foreign exchange reserves have slipped to US$ 50 million at present which is barely sufficient for one month of imports, from $103 million at the beginning of April this year, Finance Ministry data indicated.

Forex reserves remained at $ 1.9 billion in April 2022, Finance Minister Ali Sabry told parliament this week adding however that usable foreign exchange reserves or liquid reserves have crashed to $50 million.

Foreign exchange reserves of $ 1.9 billion at the Central Bank in March included the Chinese swap facility money of 10 billion Chinese yuan, equivalent to $ 1.57 billion, which cannot be freely used.