The island’s foreign reserve stock stood at 7.2 billion dollars, just enough to cover four months of imports, the Colombo-based bank said Tuesday.
The one-billion 10-year debt issue, the island’s third Eurobond, was sold in July with a yield of 5.875 percent. The bond was oversubscribed 10 times, despite being marketed in Europe and the US which are going through sluggish economic growth.
The bond was Sri Lanka’s fifth sovereign debt issue since tapping international capital markets in 2007, to fund a raft of infrastructure related projects.
The bank said inflows were also helped by 842 million from foreign investor interest in government debt and the final tranche of 414 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund 2.6 billion bailout package.
The island’s stock exchange netted in 205 million dollars during the seven month period, despite the benchmark All Share Price Index down 18.9 percent. After two consecutive years of positive growth, Colombo bourse has performed poorly this year due to credit concerns among key players. However, with prices cooling down, foreign buying has quietly stepped up among key counters.
Sri Lanka negotiated the loan from the IMF during the height of fighting and received the cash two months after the conflict with Tamil separatist rebels ended in May 2009.
The island's foreign reserves had dropped to a dangerously low level of one billion dollars towards the end of the fighting that claimed up to 100,000 lives over nearly four decades.
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