SRI LANKA NEWS (SEPTEMBER 2019) – Compiled by Victor Melder.   Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves were 8,532.6 million US dollars by the end of August, up from 8,343.9 million US dollars in July, latest Central Bank data showed. By the end of August, foreign currency reserves were 7,494.7 million dollars while the reserve position in the IMF was 65.5 million dollars. Special Drawing Rights were 14.5 million, reserves in Gold were 956.8 million and other reserve assets were 1.1 million US dollars. The outstanding stock of T-bills and T-bonds held by foreigners decreased by 0.45 percent during the week compared to the previous week. During the year up to 6th September 2019, the Sri Lanka rupee has appreciated against the US dollar by 1.2 percent. (Daily Island, 9.9.2019) The first-ever anti-venom serum developed in Sri Lanka to treat snake bites victims is expected to be introduced to ...

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SRI  LANKA  NEWS  IN  BRIEF  –  MARCH 2019 – By Victor Melder     The International Monetary Fund on Friday revived a $1.5 billion bailout for Sri Lanka that was suspended over a government power struggle last year that seriously slowed economic growth. The Washington-based lender said officials visiting Colombo agreed to re-activate the three-year loan, which started in 2016 and spread the instalments over an additional year.”The team reached understandings at the staff level with the Sri Lankan authorities… to allow more time for the completion of the economic reform agenda,” the IMF said. The Fund had been due to release an instalment in October when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his Prime Minister and called fresh elections, triggering a two month power struggle in the island nation. Because of the crisis, the economy grew by just 3.0 percent last year, making it the slowest expansion in 17 years, according to the Central ...

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