Foreign reserves were up 15 percent from the December 2011 level of 5,957 US dollars.
In order to build up foreign reserves Sri Lanka's central bank has to 'save' money by killing credit to prevent the proceeds of dollar inflows being spent by domestic economic agents, typically by sterilizing forex reserves.
In addition, interest earnings from foreign reserves themselves, net capital gains from foreign reserve assets including gold can boost the dollar value of reserves without domestic agents being involves.
Sri Lanka's official foreign reserves also include unspent fiscal reserves held temporarily as foreign exchange, in addition to monetary reserves of the Central Bank.
From mid 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 Sri Lanka lost almost two billion dollars as the Central Bank sterilized foreign exchange sales with central bank credit (printed money) driving imports and consumption to unsustainable levels.
From February 2012 monetary policy was tightened and sterilized foreign exchange sales phased out. In the second half of 2013 forex purchases were sterilized (killing domestic credit) allowing foreign reserves to build up.
The Central Bank said reserves were equal to 4.3 months of imports.
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