Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves include the People’s Bank of China swap facility, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Anil Jayantha told Parliament on Thursday — answering a question this desk recorded as open when the August reserves figure was first published five weeks ago.
Answering a question in the House, he said reserves had risen from US$1.85 billion at the height of the economic crisis in June 2022 to US$6.9 billion by August 2026, NewsFirst reported at 4.45 p.m.
The figure is not new — the caveat is
The US$6.9 billion August total is not a new disclosure. This desk reported it on 14 September, when Central Bank data put reserves at a five-month high.
What that reporting could not establish was whether the total included proceeds from the People’s Bank of China swap arrangement — a distinction this desk flagged at the time as mattering, because swap proceeds are usable only under conditions attached to the facility. Neither outlet covering the September release said either way.
Thursday’s answer settles it. Dr Jayantha said the gross official reserves do include the PBoC swap facility, while most reserve assets remain readily available to meet debt servicing and to support the domestic foreign exchange market.
That phrasing concedes the point the September figure left open: the headline number is not wholly free of conditions, and “most” is doing work that no filing has yet quantified.
The comparison being drawn
The deputy minister set the current position against June 2022, when reserves stood at US$1.85 billion. He described a steady improvement across the four years since, noting fluctuations over the period.
He said responsibility for managing reserves lies with the Central Bank under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act No. 16 of 2023.
The 2022 comparison is the government’s chosen baseline rather than a neutral one. June 2022 was the trough of the crisis, which makes the multiple large. Reserves have also been higher than US$6.9 billion within this year.
Not reported
The filing does not give the size of the PBoC swap, so the share of the US$6.9 billion that carries conditions cannot be worked out from it. It does not define “most” reserve assets, nor state reserves in months of import cover — the standard measure of adequacy, and the same gap this desk recorded in September.
It does not say which member asked the question, nor give the current month’s reserve position; the figure quoted is August’s, now two months old.
A single-source report
No other verified newsroom had filed on this parliamentary answer at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror carried separate remarks by the same deputy minister on the stock exchange from the same sitting, but not the reserves exchange. This report is therefore carried on one source, which is noted rather than hidden.
