Sri Lanka's Gross official reserves continued to improve to US dollars 4.5 billion by end January 2024. The Central Bank said that the improvement in the country's GOR included the swap facility from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), equivalent to around US dollars 1.4 billion, which is subject to conditionalities on usability. 

The increase in the GOR was mainly due to the substantial net purchases of foreign exchange from the domestic market by the Central Bank. 

Overall, the Central Bank purchased US dollars 245 million, on net basis, during the month of January 2024. 

At the same time, the Central Bank said that the appreciation trend of the exchange rate that was observed since the latter part of December continued thus far in 2024.

It added that the Sri Lanka rupee appreciated by 4.4 per cent against the US dollar during the year up to 29 February 2024. 

Meanwhile, reflecting the cross-currency movements, the Sri Lanka rupee appreciated against other major currencies, such as the euro, the pound sterling, the Japanese yen, the Indian rupee and the Australian dollar during the year up to 29 February 2024. 

In line with the nominal appreciation, the real effective exchange rate also appreciated during the month of January 2024.