The Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated 6.8% against the US dollar over the first ten months of 2026, the Central Bank says, after weakening further through October.

The currency closed October at Rs 332.61 to the dollar, from Rs 330.83 at the end of September and Rs 309.99 at the end of 2025, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday, citing the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

“By end October 2026, the Sri Lanka rupee depreciated by 6.8% against the US dollar on a year-to-date basis,” the CBSL said in its External Sector Performance report for September, which the Daily FT reported was released on Friday.

What October actually cost

The year-to-date figure stood at 6.3% at the end of September. October therefore accounts for roughly half a percentage point of the year’s total depreciation on its own.

The three closing rates are internally consistent. Measured as the fall in the rupee’s dollar value, Rs 309.99 against Rs 330.83 gives 6.30%, and Rs 309.99 against Rs 332.61 gives 6.80% — matching both of the Central Bank’s published figures exactly. In plain terms, a dollar cost Rs 22.62 more at the end of October than it did at the start of the year.

Reserves and the swap

Gross official reserves stood at US$6.9 billion at the end of September 2026, including the swap facility with the People’s Bank of China. The Daily FT notes that this is a bilateral currency swap arrangement with China’s central bank that the CBSL counts within reserves, and that the total provided 3.3 months of import cover.

Foreign money, two directions at once

During September, foreign investment in the government securities market recorded a net outflow of US$39.9 million, and foreign investment in the Colombo Stock Exchange — primary and secondary market transactions combined — a net outflow of US$4.7 million.

Over the nine months to September the two markets diverge. Foreign investors recorded a net inflow of US$168 million into government securities, against US$178 million a year earlier. Net outflows from the CSE, by contrast, widened to US$170 million from US$85 million.

This desk reported last week that foreign investors sold rupee bonds for a second straight week. A run of weekly outflows late in the year is consistent with a cumulative nine-month inflow; the two measure different windows.

One caution on the figure. The Daily FT’s own subheading describes the nine-month government securities position as an outflow of US$168 million, while the body of the same report, quoting the Central Bank, describes it as a net inflow and sets it against US$178 million a year earlier. The body’s version is used above, because it carries the attribution and the prior-year comparison. Readers should treat the direction of that particular figure as reported inconsistently by the source.

Not reported

Neither filing states what drove October’s movement, whether the Central Bank intervened in the market during the month, or what the reserve position was at the end of October — the reserves figure above is a September number, one month behind the exchange rate figure it is published alongside.