Aug 5, 2022
Sri Lanka’s FX Reserves Dwindle to $1.82 Billion in July
Bloomberg News
,(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves further dried up in July as the nation kept on drawing from its dollar pile to buy fuel and other essentials.
Official reserves dropped to $1.82 billion at end July from $1.86 billion reported for the previous month, according to data released by the central bank.
The amount includes a $1.5 billion swap arrangement with China that Sri Lanka can only access if overall reserves rise to a certain level.
The decline in the stockpile comes amid fears of a delay in an International Monetary Fund bailout due to lingering political uncertainties even as the new President Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed to revive the economy and pursue a debt restructuring with the IMF.
Sri Lanka has about $12.6 billion in outstanding bonds owed to global funds; it owes roughly an equivalent amount to bilateral creditors and multilateral lenders.
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