Sri Lanka’s external sector strengthened with significant inflows to the financial account of the balance of payments (BOP) with proceeds from the 11th international sovereign bond (ISB) issuance and a syndicated loan facility in May 2017. These inflows resulted in an increase in gross official reserves from US dollars 5.0 billion as at end April 2017 to US dollars 6.8 billion as at end May 2017. Investor confidence in the Sri Lankan economy continued to be buoyant with continuous inflows to the government securities market and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). However, the current account of the BOP demonstrated a mixed performance during May with a widening of the trade deficit and a moderation in earnings from tourism and workers’ remittances. Despite exports increasing for the third consecutive month, the higher increase in import expenditure resulted in a further expansion of the trade deficit.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) wishes to inform the general public that a preliminary investigation was conducted by CBSL and as per the information available at present, it appears that this incident had occurred inadvertently relating to certain banking information of 4,630 customers. It is also observed that this incident is attributable to internal lapses in managing and using customer information within HNB. Therefore, this subject is under further investigation by both HNB and CBSL.

Accordingly, interim supervisory measures have already been initiated to take action against those who are responsible for the incident in terms of legal provisions as well as relevant supervisory standards.