The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) strongly warns the public about fraudulent AI-generated videos misusing the CBSL Governor’s Image currently circulating on social media, particularly Facebook. These deceptive videos falsely portray the CBSL Governor as endorsing investment schemes that promise extraordinary financial returns. They also direct viewers to a suspicious external link, likely aimed at defrauding unsuspecting individuals.
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Beware of Fraudulent AI-generated videos Misusing the CBSL Governor’s Image
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The Sri Lankan foreign exchange market unveils a foreign exchange matching platform
The Sri Lankan foreign exchange (FX) market has successfully implemented an FX matching platform, as per the initiative taken by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to foster a deeper FX market. This platform, which is accessible to all Licensed Commercial Banks, National Savings Bank, and the CBSL, was introduced to enhance price discovery, and to promote greater transparency and efficiency in the domestic FX market. Accordingly, BMatch FX matching platform (BMatch) of Bloomberg was chosen by the domestic FX market for this purpose.
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IMF Executive Board Completes the Third Review Under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement with Sri Lanka
The IMF Executive Board completed the Third Review under the 48-month Extended Fund Facility with Sri Lanka, providing the country with immediate access to SDR 254 million (about US $334 million) to support Sri Lanka’s economic policies and reforms. This is the fourth tranche Sri Lanka receives under the IMF-EFF and the total IMF financial support disbursed so far, accordingly, increases to SDR 1.02 billion (about US$1.34 billion).
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External Sector Performance - January 2025
Sri Lanka’s external sector continued its positive momentum in January 2025, supported by robust inflows on account of services exports, tourism and workers’ remittances despite an expansion in the trade deficit.
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CCPI-based headline inflation remained in the negative territory in February 2025
In line with the Central Bank’s near term projections, headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100) remained in the negative territory for the sixth consecutive month, recording a deflation of 4.2% in February 2025 compared to the deflation of 4.0% in January 2025.
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SL Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for Construction Industry – January 2025
Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index for Construction (PMI - Construction), as reflected by the Total Activity Index, further expanded to 52.9 in January 2025. Most survey respondents mentioned that prevailing business conditions, particularly stable price levels and favourable weather, had expedited the completion of ongoing construction projects. It was further highlighted that ensuring a steady pipeline of new projects is essential for the firms to maintain the continued progress.
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Land Valuation Indicator – Second Half of 2024
Land Valuation Indicator (LVI) for Colombo District recorded 236.8 during the second half of 2024, with a year-on-year increase of 7.7 per cent. All sub indicators of LVI, namely, Residential, Commercial, and Industrial LVIs contributed to this increase, recording annual increases of 9.9 per cent, 9.4 per cent, and 3.9 per cent, respectively. On a semi-annual basis, LVI and its sub indicators increased at a slower pace during the second half of 2024 compared to the values recorded in the first half of 2024. The highest increase was observed in the Residential LVI, followed by Commercial and Industrial LVIs.
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Use of the Word ‘Finance’ in Contravention of the Provisions of the Finance Business Act, No. 42 of 2011
The public is hereby informed that, as per Section 10(2) of the Finance Business Act, No. 42 of 2011 (the Act), no person, other than a finance company and an institution specified in Section 10(6) of the Act, shall use the terms ‘finance’, ‘financing’, or ‘financial’ alone or in combination with another word or any of its derivatives or its transliterations or their equivalents in any language, as part of the name or the description or the business name of such person without prior written approval of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
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SL Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – January 2025
Purchasing Managers’ Indices indicate expansions in both Manufacturing and Services activities in January 2025.
Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index for Manufacturing (PMI – Manufacturing) recorded an index value of 59.0 in January 2025, indicating a further expansion in manufacturing activities. All sub-indices contributed positively to this improvement.
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The Central Bank of Sri Lanka releases the Monetary Policy Report – February 2025
The Central Bank released its first Monetary Policy Report for 2025 in keeping with the requirements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023. The Monetary Policy Report is published biannually, and the content of the current Report is based on information, which the Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank considered in formulating the monetary policy decision during the January 2025 review.