CBSL shares foreign reserves management experience with other central banks

The World Gold Council, the market development organisation for the gold industry, organised its annual central bank seminar for 2012 in Hong Kong on 14 November 2012. The seminar was chaired by Stewart Murray, Chief Executive Officer of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). The participants included officials from Bank of England, and the central banks of Sri Lanka, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Austria and others.

At the seminar, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) was invited to share its foreign reserves management expertise and experience with other central bankers. CBSL’s Director, International Operations Department, H.A. Karunaratne, made the presentation which provided a number of strategies and case studies that were adopted in beating the very low market rates that are presently prevailing.  The presentation was very well received by the participants, since the foremost challenge faced by central banks during 2011/2012 was to maintain value in their portfolios, while realising a reasonable return for their investments including gold, since global interest rates for most of the leading economies is now close to zero.