Sri Lanka’s official reserve assets fell to $7,019 million at the end of March 2026, down from $7,270 million in February, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said in data released on April 8. The 3.5 per cent monthly drop, equivalent to roughly $251 million, marks the first material reversal in the rebuild trajectory the central bank has maintained for most of the past year.
The CBSL noted that the March figure “includes the swap arrangement with the People’s Bank of China,” meaning the underlying convertible reserve position is lower than the headline number suggests once the swap line is stripped out.
The monthly fall coincided with the peak of the Middle East energy crisis, when Sri Lanka was forced to lock in fuel and gas cargoes at war-premium prices to keep the grid running and rationing measures in place. The central bank had also been an active seller of dollars to defend the rupee through March, with daily sales hitting a 31-month high earlier in the period.
The decline complicates the optics of the IMF’s fifth and sixth programme reviews, which conclude on April 9. Reserves had been viewed as one of the strongest performance metrics under the IMF programme, with the central bank previously building a buffer toward the $8–9 billion range. A pause in that build-up — even one driven by an external shock — is likely to feature in negotiations over fiscal flexibility and any revision to programme targets.
April’s outlook depends on the durability of the US-Iran ceasefire announced on April 8, which has already pulled Brent crude back below $90 a barrel and could ease the import bill in the second quarter.
