The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has received information regarding several types of financial frauds and scams being operated through social media, and Internet-based applications. Recently, an increase of these types of scams has been observed.

Most of these scams are conducted through easy loan schemes that attract the public. During such fraudulent loan approval processes, the fraudsters lure the public to share confidential customer information such as their bank account numbers and the customer’s personal identification numbers. The fraudsters then use such confidential information to access customer accounts and steal customers’ money.

The trade deficit widened in September 2019 (year-on-year), with the decline in earnings from exports exceeding the decline in expenditure on imports. Nevertheless, the trade deficit remained significantly low in the first nine months of 2019 over the same period of last year, as a result of increased cumulative earnings from exports and a sharp decline in cumulative expenditure on imports. Meanwhile, the drop in tourist arrivals was contained further in September 2019. Workers’ remittances rose (year-on-year) in September 2019, although declining on a cumulative basis. In the financial account, foreign investment in the CSE and the government securities market recorded net outflows in September 2019. Despite some depreciation pressure in the month of September, the Sri Lankan rupee remained appreciated against most major currencies during the first nine months of the year.