Sri Lanka central bank seen keeping key rates at multi-year lows on Tuesday

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's central bank is expected to retain its key monetary policy rates on Tuesday for an eighth straight month, a Reuters poll showed.

Between December 2012 and January 2014, the central bank cut the repurchase rate, or repo rate, by 125 basis points (bps) and the reverse repurchase rate, the reverse repo, by 175 bps to stimulate economic growth.

The pace of growth picked up to 7.3 percent last year from 6.3 percent in 2012. The central bank has estimated growth at 7.8 percent this year.

The yield on one-year T-bill has fallen to as low as 6.15 percent in the primary market, below the 6.50 percent rate at which the central bank mops up liquidity from commercial banks.