Sri Lanka added 11,408 active credit cards in July and 17,663 in August, resuming growth after a June slowdown that followed the Central Bank’s May interest-rate rise, EconomyNext reported on Sunday, citing Central Bank data.
The total number of active credit cards reached 2,297,783 by the end of August. That is an expansion of 6.1 percent, or 131,597 cards, over the first eight months of the year.
The annual run rate has been slowing for two years. Active cards rose 7.8 percent (157,730) across 2025 and 4.8 percent (91,371) in 2024, after falling 1.8 percent (39,991) in 2023 in the aftermath of the sovereign default.
The pivot point was the May rate rise
The monthly pattern tracks monetary policy closely. May was the strongest month of the year, at 25,720 new active cards — and the Central Bank raised its key policy rate by 100 basis points in the last week of May, reversing a long easing cycle. Growth fell away immediately afterwards.
Analysts told EconomyNext that banks had tied up with supermarkets and other vendors to promote cards while rates were falling and the economy was recovering faster than expected. With policy now tight, and with fuel rationing in place since March, they said people may simply not be spending as they were.
They also expect the rate rise to slow new card activations further as penalty rates on cards climb — a mechanism that cuts both ways, since some analysts credit falling rates since 2023 with bringing lapsed cardholders back into active use in the first place.
By EconomyNext’s own data, the weak month was July — not June
EconomyNext frames June as the slowdown and July and August as the recovery. Its own figures, set against the monthly releases this desk has recorded through the year, do not quite support that framing.
The eight-month total is 131,597. The months this desk has already published, plus the two reported on Sunday, account for 117,457 of it:
| Month | New active cards |
|---|---|
| January | 10,113 |
| February | 17,081 |
| March | 22,473 |
| April | 12,999 |
| May | 25,720 |
| June | 14,140 (derived) |
| July | 11,408 |
| August | 17,663 |
| Total | 131,597 |
June therefore comes out at about 14,140 — the figure EconomyNext describes but does not give.
The arithmetic checks out independently at both ends. January’s release put the national total at 2,176,299 after that month’s 10,113 additions, implying a 2025 year-end base of 2,166,186. Adding the eight-month growth of 131,597 to that base gives 2,297,783 — exactly the end-August total EconomyNext reports.
On those numbers July, at 11,408, was the weakest month of the year, not June. June’s 14,140 was a genuine step down from May’s 25,720, but the trough came a month later than the framing suggests, and August’s 17,663 is the only month since the rate rise to beat the pre-hike average.
One caveat: this derivation assumes the monthly figures published at the time have not since been revised by the Central Bank. Neither this article nor EconomyNext’s reports a revision.
Not reported
EconomyNext does not give the June figure, card balances outstanding, delinquency or default rates, or the penalty rate that analysts say is now rising. Nothing in the filing says how much of the 6.1 percent growth is new borrowers rather than dormant cards returning to use — a distinction the analysts’ own explanation makes material.
This desk found no other verified newsroom carrying the July–August Central Bank card data. EconomyNext files this series monthly and corroboration typically arrives days later, if at all.
Sources: EconomyNext. Monthly comparisons from this desk’s own archive.
