The Central Bank of Sri Lanka wishes to make the following clarification on the process it has followed in relation to Section 4 of the Registered Stock and Securities Ordinance, No 07 of 1937 (RSSO) as amended with regard to the issuance of government securities.

1. The RSSO was enacted for the purpose of issuing registered stocks, Government promissory notes, Bearer bonds and Treasury bonds.

2. The auction based issuance of Treasury bonds on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka commenced in 1997. With the commencement of the public auction through the primary dealers in Treasury bonds, the price and volume of Treasury bonds were determined through market forces. Therefore the related Gazette notifications were issued after the Treasury bond issuances, but on dates and Gazette numbers which were pre-reserved. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has taken the following measures to comply with the intent of the law.

Inflation, as measured by the change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) (2013=100), which is compiled by the Department of Census and Statistics, increased to 6.5 per cent in January 2017 from 4.2 per cent in December 2016, on year-on-year basis. Both Food and Non-food categories contributed towards the year-on-year inflation in January 2017. 

The change in the NCPI measured on an annual average basis increased to 4.6 per cent in January 2017 from 4.0 per cent in December 2016.