Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves, which stood at US$ 8.4 billion at the end of July, will rise to nine billion dollars by the end of 2018 – an amount that could comfortably cover the country’s imports for five months, according to Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy.

CBSL says it is looking to explore the ‘Panda bonds’ market to improve its foreign reserves and hopes to issue Panda bonds before the end of the year. Therefore, the country expects an additional 1.5 billion dollars through a syndicated loan from the China Development Bank, an IMF tranche and Panda bonds.

However, the CBSL Governor believes that Sri Lanka’s economic growth is not likely to exceed four percent this year as opposed to the potential growth rate initially set at 5.7 percent.