‘What has to be axiomatic is that Sri Lanka has to be mindful of India’s strategic interests’ – By Nirupama Subramanian
Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy
Source : indianexpress
On the Sri Lankan economy and status of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout
The gross external reserve level is just under $1.8 billion but $1.4 billion of that is a swap arrangement with the People’s Bank of China, which is not very usable. You’ve got to have three months’ worth of import cover before you can draw on that, so the reusable reserves are only about $300 million. Of that about $100 million account for Special Drawing Rights Holdings with the IMF. A little bit of gold is left after the sale of some gold stocks that the Central bank had. So actually it’s about $300 million that exists, and that’s about a week’s high imports.
