The Sri Lankan rupee has depreciated by 7 percent against the US dollar in 2026, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has confirmed, marking the first official year-to-date framing of the slide that has accelerated since the Middle East conflict began.
The CBSL said the buying rate of the US dollar stood at Rs. 331.42 and the selling rate at Rs. 341.36 at the end of trading on Friday, June 12 — figures consistent with the Rs. 341 selling-rate ceiling commercial banks have been quoting through the week. The Central Bank attributed the depreciation directly to “the emergence of external sector pressures following the commencement of the Middle East conflict in late February 2026”, placing the rupee’s 2026 slide squarely within the war’s economic spillover rather than domestic policy missteps.
The 7 percent reading is the first official update since the Central Bank reported a 5.4 percent year-to-date depreciation as of end-April — implying the rupee has shed an additional 1.6 percentage points in roughly six weeks as oil-price premia, freight insurance costs and import bills have all responded to the Hormuz disruption.
The Central Bank cited last week’s mandatory export-proceeds conversion directive — issued through an Extraordinary Gazette by Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe — as the structural response. Under the rule, every exporter receiving export proceeds in Sri Lanka during any calendar month must mandatorily convert the residual amount into rupees after using the proceeds only for authorised payments by the 10th day of the following month. The directive briefly drove a sharp rupee bounce to Rs. 330.15 in mid-June before importer FX demand pushed the selling rate back toward Rs. 341 within days.
Update — June 15: Rupee reverses, buying rate falls to Rs. 326.34
The Central Bank reported on Monday that the Sri Lankan rupee had strengthened against the US dollar, reversing the recent depreciation. The buying rate of the dollar fell to Rs. 326.34 and the selling rate to Rs. 336.58 on June 15 — a roughly 5-rupee gain on both sides of the spread compared with the Friday close. The single-day reversal is the sharpest move in favour of the rupee since the June 10 surge that followed the export-proceeds gazette, and partially undoes the slide that had taken the official selling rate to Rs. 341.36 the previous week.
Sources: Rupee depreciates by 7% against US dollar in 2026 — Ada Derana, June 14; Sri Lankan Rupee strengthens against US Dollar — Ada Derana, June 15.
