Sri Lanka forex reserves at US$3.9bn with new IMF allocation
Aug 28, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka`s gross official reserves rose to 3.9 billion US dollars after receiving the equivalent of 475 million US dollar under a new allocation International Monetary Fund reserves, the Central Bank said.
Sri Lanka`s reserves have now topped a 3.5 billion dollar peak reached in September 2008.

In August 07, the IMF has decided to distributed 250 billion US dollars among member countries. The IMF`s so-called quota denominated in its `currency` of special drawing rights (SDR) which is an index of multiple of hard currencies.

Sri Lanka had received 307 million SDRs under the new allocation.

`The purpose of such fresh allocation was to strengthen the international reserves of all member countries in order to face any liquidity constraints due to global financial crisis,` the Central Bank said in a statement.

`Accordingly, the gross official reserves of the country have now exceeded the previous highest ever level of US dollars 3,558 million and reached US dollars 3.9 billion which is equivalent approximately to finance 4.2 months of imports.`