Wednesday, July 22 2026
Wednesday, July 22 2026
MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals fell 9.9 percent from a year ago to 124,551 in June 2026, with broad falls in most markets except India, data from the state tourism promotion office showed.
Sri Lanka's tourism has been hit by the US and Israel's war on Iran which made air travel expensive. Flights over the Middle East was also intermittently cancelled.
Falling tourism revenues, will reduce incomes of domestic agents and lead to a similar fall in the volume of imports, unless the central bank injects money and boosts credit and consumption.
The central bank also refused to honor notes it had created by purchasing dollars coming to family members of expatriate workers and Ditwah victims and steeply depreciated the currency in after March 2026, on top of monetary debasement carried out through 2025.
Indian visitors were 43,423 in June 2026, up from 37,934 last year, but all other top generating markets were down.
Australia was up to 8,710 from 7,229.
INDIAN BOOST : India and Australia were among few markets that showed growth Britons were down to 10,474 from 11,629, China was down to 8,224 from 8,804, US was down steeply to 3,806 from 5,422 and France was down to 3,726 from 4,345. (Colombo/July02/2026)
| 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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