Sri Lanka remittances rise to $3.8bn after civil war
September 11, 2010 01:40 am
Remittances sent home by Sri Lankan nationals overseas may rise to a
record $3.8 billion in 2010, a central bank official said, adding that policy
makers will ensure stability of the currency as the flows increase.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Swarna Gunaratne, acting director of the
central bank’s economic research department, said: “We are still getting
sustained inflows from the Middle East and
people are sending more money to their families in the north and east since the
war ended.”
Sri Lankan troops defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009,
freeing areas in the north and east which were controlled by the separatists
for 26 years. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka would “purchase excess
foreign exchange in the market” and keep the Sri Lankan rupee stable, Gunaratne
said.
Spending on imports will exhaust some dollar inflows and prevent a sharp gain
in the rupee, she said.
The Sri Lankan rupee, which has climbed about 2.3 percent since the war ended,
was at 112.55 to the dollar at 1:20 pm in Colombo,
according to Bloomberg data, arabianbusiness reports.
