State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says that the depreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee in recent days is a temporary situation which has been fluctuated based on the demand and the supply.
Speaking to the media on July 30, the State Minister stated that the government has allowed the value of the US Dollar and the rupee to be determined depending on supply and demand.
“There were about USD 750 million in Sri Lanka’s Development Bonds.”
“It was agreed that the value of the development bonds should be paid in Sri Lanka Rupees during the domestic debt restructuring. Therefore, it was bought with dollar deposits.”
”Then there is a need for the banks to collect this amount of dollars in order to provide the money to the depositors when they need it”, he claimed.
Further, Siyambalapitiya emphasized that “therefore, the banks can limit the release of the dollars they have received to the market to some extent in order to accumulate this” adding that “some quantity of it can be bought from the market”.
“Along with these issues, the depreciation of the rupee and the increase in the value of the dollar happened in the last few days. This situation is a temporary situation that arose due to demand and supply”, he added.
