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Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves grew in March to the highest in over a year after the South Asian nation clinched a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
The stockpile increased to $2.69 billion from $2.22 billion in February, according to data released by the central bank on its website. The reserves include a swap facility from the People’s Bank of China equivalent to about $1.4 billion, which helped lift reserves to a previous high of $3.14 billion in December 2021, even though it has conditions on
usability.
The IMF board approved the 48-month loan program and subsequently disbursed about $333 million as a first tranche, which helped to stabilise Sri Lanka’s economy and let the nation begin restructuring its debt.
Sri Lanka took a key step towards winning the cooperation of its external bondholders for restructuring $84 billion in debt by agreeing to include local-currency bonds in the program.