News
CB sells more gold; reserves further down
By Shyam Nuwan Ganewatte
The Central Bank has sold another significant slice of its dwindling gold reserves in January 2022 amidst an overall fall of its gross reserves, according to official data.
The CBSL gold reserves were down to 92 mn US dollars in January 2022 from 175 million US dollars in December, a sharp drop of 47 percent.
CBSL also sold gold in December 2021. By end December 2021 Sri Lanka had about 3.1 tonnes of gold. The latest sale is estimated to have brought gold holdings down to around 1.6 tonnes.
Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said at the time that the sales would increase liquid assets as overall reserves dropped.
According to official data, foreign reserves dropped to USD 2.3 bn from USD 3.1 bn in Dec 2021 whereas foreign currency reserve dropped from USD 2.77 bn in Dec 2021 to 2.07 bn in January.
