Sri Lanka’s First Capital Research believes that the raising of US $500 million via Samurai bonds is likely to support to maintain reserves around the US $8 billion mark throughout the rest of 2019.

As per Governor of CBSL, the government will soon issue Request for Proposals to raise US $500 million via Samurai bonds, which may boost reserves and enable finance debt repayments.

The tender board must be first approved by the Cabinet and is expected take approximately 1-2 weeks to get through all the administrative procedures. 

Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves were US $8.3 billion by the end of July, down from US $8.9 billion in June.