By Asoka S. Seneviratne –

In central banking, accumulating reserves by flooding the domestic market with liquidity is like trying to put out a fire with a hose connected to a gasoline tank.

Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic recovery remains precariously balanced. Recent figures from the banking system highlight a startling expansion of excess rupee liquidity—surging from approximately LKR 40 billion in mid-June 2026 to LKR 200 billion—largely driven by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) purchasing roughly USD 475 million from commercial banks.

While reserve accumulation is vital for meeting international obligations and rebuilding buffers, doing so through standard spot market purchases from commercial banks injects massive base money into the system. This unintended liquidity glut has triggered a sharp rebound in year-on-year private credit growth (surpassing 20% to 25%), pushed the import-to-export ratio above the comfortable 1.5 threshold to roughly 1.6, and threatens the stability of the Sri Lankan Rupee (SLR)—particularly as temporary vehicle surcharges expire this month or in August 2026.  With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) setting stringent guardrails on credit expansion, monetary authorities face an urgent policy dilemma: How can the CBSL accumulate essential foreign exchange reserves without destabilizing domestic liquidity and exchange rate stability?

The Core Dilemma: The Reserve Accumulation and Liquidity Feedback Loop

When a central bank purchases foreign exchange from domestic commercial banks, it credits their reserve accounts with newly created local currency. This base money injection multiplies across the financial sector, driving down short-term interest rates, accelerating private credit growth, and boosting domestic demand for imports. In a fragile economy, this fuels inflationary pressures, raises the cost of living for citizens, and exerts severe downward pressure on the exchange rate, undermining the hard-fought stabilization gains achieved under IMF programs.

Global Precedent 1: Direct Acquisition via Non-Bank Channels (State-Owned Enterprises)

To prevent commercial bank reserve expansion, several emerging markets bypass the banking sector entirely when acquiring foreign currency.

* The Mechanism: The central bank acquires foreign exchange directly from major state-owned enterprises (SOEs)—such as national petroleum, telecommunications, or mineral boards—that generate substantial foreign revenue. Additionally, tourist visa fees, port charges, airport ground handling charges, and a portion of import tariff fees could be deposited directly into a Treasury/CBSL foreign currency reserve account.

* Liquidity Impact: Payment is executed by debiting existing fiscal or government deposits already held at the central bank, resulting in a strictly liquidity-neutral transfer of funds rather than the creation of new reserve money.

Global Precedent 2: Sterilized Accumulation via Non-Bank Instruments

If market interventions are unavoidable, central banks must sterilize the resulting liquidity by targeting non-bank financial institutions rather than commercial banks.

The Mechanism: Issuing high-yielding central bank securities or specialized bonds specifically to pension funds, insurance companies, and institutional investors.

International Practice: Countries like Peru (via the Central Bank of Peru’s specialized certificates of deposit) successfully mop up excess liquidity by locking up savings from non-bank pools, neutralizing monetary expansion without restricting commercial bank credit capacity.

Global Precedent 3: Foreign-Currency Denominated Debt and Liability Management

Accumulating reserves through foreign liabilities rather than domestic monetary expansion avoids local currency creation altogether.

The Mechanism: Issuing foreign-currency-denominated central bank bonds to domestic or international investors, or drawing down dedicated structural credit lines.

International Practice: Developing economies frequently utilize bilateral currency swap lines (such as those established by the People’s Bank of China) or multilateral balance-of-support loans, which credit foreign currency directly to official reserve accounts without injecting a single unit of domestic base money.

Global Precedent 4: Rule-Based FX Options and Market-Smoothing Mechanisms

Rather than discretionary spot purchases that catch markets off-guard and create sudden liquidity spikes, central banks can institutionalize rules-based accumulation.

The Mechanism: Colombia’s Banco de la República historically utilized pre-announced options to purchase foreign exchange during periods of heavy capital inflows.

Policy Value: This cushions exchange rate volatility transparently and aligns reserve accumulation with market depth, preventing the sudden monetization of foreign inflows.

Global Precedent 5: Macro prudential Guardrails and Structural Liquidity Ratios (SLR)

When demand-side tools like interest rates prove insufficient against aggressive credit expansion, central banks require structural balance-sheet controls.

The Mechanism: Implementing structural liquidity requirements that restrict the pool of funds available for commercial lending.

International Practice: India’s Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)—currently 18%—requires commercial banks to hold a specified percentage of their net demand and time liabilities in liquid assets such as government securities, serving as an effective structural brake on credit creation, independent of standard cash reserve ratios.

Policy Recommendations for Sri Lanka: Opening the Eyes of CBSL and the Treasury

To safeguard the economy from currency depreciation and runaway import demand, the CBSL and the Treasury must urgently re-engineer their reserve accumulation strategy:

Decouple FX Purchases from Base Money: Pivot away from unsterilized spot purchases from commercial banks.

Adopt Non-Bank Sterilization Tools: Introduce dedicated medium-term non-monetary instruments targeted at institutional savings rather than bank liquidity pools.

Strengthen Structural Controls: Explore macroprudential tools modeled on statutory liquidity frameworks to keep private credit growth aligned with IMF benchmarks.

Coordinate Fiscal-Monetary Flows: Ensure state-owned enterprise foreign earnings are leveraged directly against existing fiscal accounts to maintain monetary neutrality.

Summary

Accumulating foreign exchange reserves is essential to Sri Lanka’s external solvency, but doing so by flooding the domestic banking system with rupee liquidity is counterproductive. By studying international practices in Peru, Colombia, Chile, and India, the CBSL and the Treasury can adopt sophisticated, non-monetary techniques for reserve accumulation. Aligning reserve buildup with strict credit containment is the only viable path to protecting the exchange rate, defending purchasing power, and maintaining sustainable macroeconomic stability.

*The author, among many, served as the Special Advisor to the Office of the President of Namibia from 2006 to 2012 and was a Senior Consultant with the UNDP for 20 years. He was a Senior Economist with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (1972-1993). He can be reached via asoka.seneviratne@gmail.com