The Central Bank yesterday warned the public of the latest scam, where people are being defrauded money by offering them foreign

Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves improved by about US $ 100 million in November, bringing the total reserve assets up to US $ 1,804 million by the end of the month, from October’s US $ 1,705 million, although much of it has restrictions on its utilisation.  

The reserves consists of US $ 1.4 billion equivalent Chinese yuan-denominated swap line, of which the value came down recently by about US $ 100 million, as the dollar strength cut into the value of yuan in recent times, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said in late November. 

Sri Lanka announced entering into a US $ 1.5 billion equivalent yuan-denominated swap line with the People’s Bank of China, in March 2021. However, the Central Bank didn’t take it as part of its foreign currency reserves until December last year, until the country’s reserve buffer wore thin to a level which was barely sufficient to support a month’s imports.  
When asked why the swap facility wasn’t considered as part of the reserves before, the former two Central Bank chiefs maintained that it was being kept as standby. 

However, as the year drew to a close with declining reserves, the authorities changed hearts and decided to add the yuan swap as part of the reserves. Nonetheless, the swap facility served no valid purpose, as it could not be utilised for imports, due to its specific nature. 
The attempts by the current authorities with the Chinese counterparts to unlock the swap line haven’t yielded any positive result up to now.