Sri Lanka’s external sector came under pressure in September 2018. The widening deficit in the trade account and the strengthening of the US dollar, which resulted in outflows of portfolio investments, adversely impacted the balance of payments during the month. Despite earnings from exports which surpassed US dollars 1 billion for the fourth consecutive month, higher growth in import expenditure outpaced the increase in export earnings. In the financial account, foreign investments in the government securities market recorded outflows responding to the firming up of global financial markets. Meanwhile, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) also witnessed some outflows of foreign investments during September. Consequently, the Sri Lankan rupee which depreciated against the US dollar by 5.3 per cent in the first eight months of the year, showed a further depreciation of 4.6 per cent in September, reflecting the pressure on the domestic foreign exchange market. These developments necessitated intervention by the Central Bank to curtail excessive volatility in the exchange rate.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) issued a new series of circulation coins with face value of Rs.10, Rs.5, Rs.2 and Re.1 with objectives of reducing the cost of coins minting, increasing the durability of coins, giving more portability and identifying easily by visually impaired people. The first coins pack was officially presented to the Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mahinda Rajapakse by Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of CBSL on 27 November 2018.

The coins will be issued into circulation from 03 December 2018 through licensed commercial banks. These new coins are circulated along with the existing coins of the same denominations issued earlier.