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July 07, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has lost money by buying Greece government bonds for its foreign reserve portfolio but returns on other assets have offset the losses, the Central Bank said.
"The investments in Greece Bonds were a small fraction of the Central Bank total Europe portfolio and the loss of the Greek bonds was comfortably offset by higher returns from other investments," the Central Bank said in a statement.
The monetary authority said at the time bonds were bought the country had the backing of the European Financial Stability Fund and they were "were considered sound even though the Greece rating itself was lower than the investment rate."
Exact losses were not specified, but Ravi Karunanayka, a legislator was quoted as saying that a parliamentary committee was informed that the monetary authority had lost 2.2 billion rupees (about 16 million US dollars) on Greek bonds.
The Central Bank said it had earned 6.56 percent on its average reserves of 6.57 billion US dollars in 2012 which included gold, in 2011 or 430.2 million US dollars.
In 2010 it had earned 6.16 percent or 341.2 million US dollars on average reserves of 5.5 billion US dollars.
Sri Lanka has a de facto peg with the US dollar and aggressive investment strategies involving diversifying out of dollar assets can result in large mark-to-market losses on cross currency movements.
Steep cross currency movements involving strengthening of the US dollar were seen in 2008 when Sri Lanka lost about 200 million US dollars and also in the past quarter. Gold prices have also fallen this year.
But the US itself has been downgraded out of its triple 'A' rating by Standard and Poor's and several central banks have bought into gold. Sri Lanka's central bank has also been actively trading in gold.
The current economic crisis, triggered by loose US policy from around 2001, has also re-ignited a long simmering debate on whether excessively inflation and bubble-prone pure paper fiat money should be ended in favor of a more stable gold linked money standard.
http://lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1722012496
"The investments in Greece Bonds were a small fraction of the Central Bank total Europe portfolio and the loss of the Greek bonds was comfortably offset by higher returns from other investments," the Central Bank said in a statement.
The monetary authority said at the time bonds were bought the country had the backing of the European Financial Stability Fund and they were "were considered sound even though the Greece rating itself was lower than the investment rate."
Exact losses were not specified, but Ravi Karunanayka, a legislator was quoted as saying that a parliamentary committee was informed that the monetary authority had lost 2.2 billion rupees (about 16 million US dollars) on Greek bonds.
The Central Bank said it had earned 6.56 percent on its average reserves of 6.57 billion US dollars in 2012 which included gold, in 2011 or 430.2 million US dollars.
In 2010 it had earned 6.16 percent or 341.2 million US dollars on average reserves of 5.5 billion US dollars.
Sri Lanka has a de facto peg with the US dollar and aggressive investment strategies involving diversifying out of dollar assets can result in large mark-to-market losses on cross currency movements.
Steep cross currency movements involving strengthening of the US dollar were seen in 2008 when Sri Lanka lost about 200 million US dollars and also in the past quarter. Gold prices have also fallen this year.
But the US itself has been downgraded out of its triple 'A' rating by Standard and Poor's and several central banks have bought into gold. Sri Lanka's central bank has also been actively trading in gold.
The current economic crisis, triggered by loose US policy from around 2001, has also re-ignited a long simmering debate on whether excessively inflation and bubble-prone pure paper fiat money should be ended in favor of a more stable gold linked money standard.
http://lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1722012496
