SL prints 39.97 billion money

Sri Lanka has printed 39.97 billion rupees after a failed Treasury bill ‘auction’ operated under price controls, taking the central bank’s Treasury bill stock to 1,261 billion rupees on September 03 from 1,221 billion a day earlier, data shows.

The central bank conducted a 68.5 billion rupee Treasury bill auction on September 01 and failed to sell 43.24 billion rupees of the auction under a price control of 5.97 percent set for 12-month bills.

The price control serves as a de facto policy rate and the central bank prints money to buy up the bills.

After a series of failed bill auctions and outright purchases outside auctions to finance the budget and refinance private firms, the central bank has run out reserves to exchange for the new money.