The Central Bank of Sri Lanka became a net seller of U.S. dollars in April 2026 for the first time in 22 months, official data showed, reversing a long stretch of reserve-building that the regulator had pursued to meet IMF programme targets.
The Central Bank sold US$13 million on a net basis last month, EconomyNext reported. It last recorded a net dollar sale in June 2024.
The April figure follows net purchases of US$697.2 million in the first four months of the year and net buying of US$2 billion across 2025, when the bank was actively absorbing inflows to rebuild gross official reserves.
Gross official reserves fell by US$267 million in April to US$6,759 million, down from US$7,026 million the month before, according to Central Bank data cited by Ada Derana. The fall pushed reserves back below the US$7 billion threshold for the first time in two months — Sri Lanka had only crossed that mark in February 2026, the first time since August 2020. The headline figure includes proceeds from the standing currency-swap arrangement with the People’s Bank of China.
Foreign currency reserves alone — the narrower measure that excludes gold and SDR holdings — slipped to US$6,505 million in April from US$6,800 million in March. The rupee has depreciated 3.6 per cent against the dollar so far this year, and weakened by more than 1 per cent in the one-month period through May 8 — extending the decline first seen in March.
Sri Lanka has continued to repay multilateral and bilateral creditors during the period but has yet to resume servicing its sovereign bond holders. The shift to net selling marks a notable change in the Central Bank’s market posture, after the 31-month-high dollar sales recorded in early April that the bank had described at the time as a smoothing intervention.
The data lands days before the next round of IMF discussions and against a backdrop of rising fuel-import costs tied to the Strait of Hormuz disruption.
Sources: EconomyNext, Ada Derana.
