Wednesday, July 22 2026
Wednesday, July 22 2026
Exporters have to convert dollars by on the tenth day of the following month, according to rule signed by central bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe.
Indirect exporters also have to convert on the same time line.
The rules will go into effect after approval by parliament.
Sri Lanka removed mandatory conversion rules in 1993, but they were brough back in 2016, after the central bank cut rates in 2015 and enforced them by printing money.
Rates were cut saying backward looking inflation was low, even as the economy recovered strongly from a 2011/12 currency crises triggered by earlier rate cuts.
At the time the central bank injected liquidity by terminating repo deals made with Treasury bills borrowed from the Employees Provident Fund.
In 2015, money was also printed by terminating sell-buy swaps, which were used to mop up liquidity and build reserves after the agency ran out of Treasury bills.
After printing money including by monetizing the balance of payments, the central bank shies away from its newly created under an International Monetary Fund backed procedure called exchange rate as the first line of defence (interest rates.
| US Dollar | 340.98 | Sell - |
| Euro | 391.44 | Sell - |
| Japan Yen | 2.114 | Sell - |
| Sterling | 458.31 | Sell - |
| AED | 91.58 | Indi - |
| 3 month bill | 10.13 | .08 ▼ |
| 12-m bill | 10.20% | .01 ▼ |
| Gold | $4035 | - - |
| ASPI | 21,417.80 | 7.19 ▼ |
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