Colombo: The Reserve Bank of India has signed necessary documents for extending a $400-million currency-swap facility to Sri Lanka to boost the island nation’s draining foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian High Commission here said on Saturday. The currency-swap arrangement will remain available till November 2022, it said in a press release.
Sri Lanka had said in April that it was set to enter into an agreement with the RBI for a currency swap worth $400 million under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) framework to boost the foreign reserves and ensure financial stability of the country which is badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made an additional request to India for a special $1.1-billion currency-swap facility.
