COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's central bank is expected to keep its key policy rates steady on Tuesday, a Reuters poll showed, in a sign it expects private sector credit growth to recover after rates were slashed to multi-year lows at the start of the year.

The central bank has cut the repurchase rate by 125 basis points (bps) and reverse repurchase rate by 175 bps between December 2012 and January 2014 to stimulate economic growth, which picked up to 7.3 percent last year from 6.3 percent in the previous year.

Private sector credit grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in January, the slowest expansion since May 2010. In December, credit was 7.5 percent higher than a year ago, and in January 2013 it grew an annual 15.5 percent.

The central bank has estimated the $67 billion economy would grow 7.8 percent this year.