imageCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka's central bank is expected to hold its key monetary policy rates steady at their record low level on Tuesday for a 10th straight month as policymakers aim to sustain an economic rebound, a Reuters poll showed.

The repurchase and reverse repurchase rates are at 6.50 percent and 8.00 percent respectively - record lows.

In September, the central bank paid commercial banks using its standing deposit facility only 5 percent interest after the banks had made deposits three times in a calendar month at the current 6.50 percent rate, a move seen by many banks as an effective rate cut.

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.

Copyright Reuters, 2014

Comments

Comments are closed.