Sri Lanka central bank to host reserve management meet

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s central bank is hosting a reserve management conference which will bring together central bankers, sovereign asset managers, policymakers, economists and investment professionals from across the globe to discuss challenges and opportunities in reserve management.

“The conference aims to promote knowledge exchange, share best practices and foster international cooperation to enhance reserve resilience and support sustainable macroeconomic stability,” CBSL said.

Topics include Challenges in building the foreign reserves, Challenges for Asia in a world of geopolitical fragmentation, Digital and tokenized assets in official reserves, Reviewing the currency power and USD dominance in FX reserves, The role of gold and alternative assets in reserve portfolios, and Enhancing reserve management through technology and AI.

The event is scheduled for September 10 and 11 at The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo.

Speakers include Domenico Nardelli, Treasurer – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; Ussrah Hussain, Director, Digital and Product Solutions – The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC); Shaokai Fan, Global Head of Central Banks, World Gold Council and Ajay Kumar, Executive Director – Reserve Bank of India.

Sri Lanka faces ongoing monthly fluctuations. Foreign currency reserves gained 2.1 percent to 6.59 billion dollars by end July from 6.45 billion dollars a month ago, official data showed, amid dollar buying by the central bank.

CBSL resumed its aggressive dollar buying to boost the reserves and net bought 348.6 million dollars in July. It bought 905 million dollars in the first seven months of 2026 following a net purchase of 2 billion dollars last year.

Sri Lanka has been facing currency pressure as its FX reserves fell.

“Some emerging markets are facing currency pressure, including India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with depreciation in the 5%-7% range since the start of the Iran war,” Fitch Ratings said in May.

Sri Lanka’s FX reserves fell by 7 percent between February and April 2026, Fitch said, which matters for deal flow.

“Debt markets should benefit from countries’ stronger external positions, deeper domestic funding markets and greater policy space to respond to the shock. In weaker external environments, prolonged FX pressure could feed through into tighter liquidity and higher funding costs for financial institutions.”

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves has come under scrutiny following a recent drop in official figures, with opposition politicians alleging dollar sales by the central bank to defend the local currency, while monetary authorities attributed the decline to elevated import demand.

In July, Opposition Member of Parliament Ravi Karunanayake noted that gross official reserves dropped from 6.8 billion dollars to 6.4 billion dollars, moving away from the year-end target of 8.9 billion dollars outlined under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.

“Dropping it to 6.4 billion suggests that they are selling dollars to protect the rupee—meaning they are selling off dollars to prevent depreciation,” Karunanayake said. (Colombo/Sep3/2026)