Sri Lanka’s official reserve assets increased by 1.6% to USD 6,873 million at end-May 2026 from USD 6,766 million a month earlier, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) disclosed.
The end-May figure marks a USD 107 million build-up on the April reading and continues the gradual rebuild of the headline reserve stock during a month when the rupee was under sustained Middle East-driven pressure. The Central Bank noted that the figure includes proceeds from the People’s Bank of China swap arrangement, leaving a smaller but still positive lift to the “usable” portion of reserves once swap-encumbered amounts are stripped out.
The May print also sits above the USD 6.77 billion end-April reading published with the CBSL Weekly Indicators on May 29, when the regulator also flagged that the rupee had weakened 5.4 percent year-to-date. The rupee has continued to slide since: the USD selling rate at commercial banks crossed Rs. 340 on June 4 and reached around Rs. 342 official and Rs. 345 in the unofficial market by June 5.
Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando, addressing the depreciation on the same day, described the slide as a Middle East-driven short-term fluctuation rather than an economic crisis and said the rate had already returned to the Rs. 330 range, citing continuing inflows from exports, tourism earnings and remittances.
The May reserves print is the first data point that quantifies how much of those inflows are landing on the balance sheet during the crude-price shock. Sri Lanka’s external position remains supported by the IMF Extended Fund Facility programme and parallel disbursements from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank announced earlier in the cycle.
Source: Ada Derana.
