The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has permitted licensed banks to grant concessions to their borrowers who have been affected by the recent floods, adverse weather conditions and connected circumstances with a view to facilitating the recommencement of their businesses and normalization of their activities.

Accordingly, licensed banks can;

• Grant a concessionary period of up to 3 months in respect of repayment of all performing credit facilities of such borrowers as at 25 May 2017, and
• Waive the penal interest for this period

Based on the information received by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, many borrowers who have been affected by the recent floods are not aware of this concessionary scheme and therefore, have not received these concessions. Accordingly, such borrowers are informed to contact their bank branches in this regard.

The Monetary Board, at its meeting held on 02 August 2017, was of the view that the current monetary policy stance is appropriate and decided to maintain the policy interest rates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka at their present levels.

In arriving at the above decision, the Monetary Board took into consideration current and expected developments in the domestic and international macroeconomic environment and the need to maintain inflation at mid-single digit levels over the medium term.

The outlook for global growth appears to be firming according to the latest update of the World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July 2017. The Sri Lankan economy is expected to record a modest recovery in the forthcoming quarters following the low growth witnessed in the first quarter of 2017. The recovery of the agriculture related activities and the positive performance of the industry and services related activities together with the reinstatement of GSP+ facility are expected to contribute to economic growth.