15 percent surrender rule imposed on banks for their dollar inflows will also lifted from next week, he said adding that the removing of surrender requirement will pave the way for rupee to trade freely

He pointed out that the CB will intervene as and when necessary to provide assistance if there is any scarcity of foex for essential commodity exports.
The Central Bank continues the practice of collecting every month up to US$ 300 million from exporter dollar conversions and surrender requirements, which helps significantly to provide dollars to finance the essential imports.

It will buy dollars to build reserves as and when its necessary Governor Weerasinghe said expressing the hope that market rates will come down soon and the gap between policy rates and the market will also be narrowed.

He expressed the belief that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme will be approved by the executive board this month unlocking the US$ 2.9 billion bail out loan as they have now completed all the required prior fiscal and monetary actions.