COLOMBO: Sri Lanka announced on Monday the closure of three overseas diplomatic missions in a bid to save foreign currency reserves, as the country’s central bank slapped tighter controls on dollars needed to finance essential imports.

The Sri Lankan High Commission (embassy) in Nigeria and consulates in Germany and Cyprus will be closed from January in the restructuring, the foreign ministry said.

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“The restructuring is undertaken with a view to conserving the country’s much needed foreign reserves and minimising expenditure related to maintenance of Sri Lanka’s missions overseas,” the ministry said in a statement.