Sri Lanka rupee opens weaker, bond yields up sharply

Monday June 23, 2025 9:54 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s rupee opened at 300.60/301.00 to the US dollar in the spot market Monday, weaker against Friday’s close of 300.50/60, dealers said, while bond yields were up sharply.

A bond maturing on 15.02.2028 was quoted at 9.05/15 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.12.2029 was quoted at 9.75/80 percent, up from 9.62/70 percent.

A bond maturing on 15.03.2031 was quoted at 10.10/25 percent, up from 10.10/20 percent.

Stocks were trading down. The ASPI was down 1.33 percent, or 227.94 percent, at 16,860; the S&P SL20 was down 1.34 percent, or 68.20 points, at 5,031. (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 12:19 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s government has issued a statement on the Israel-Iran war calling on “all parties to take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East region”.

“Sri Lanka is gravely concerned about the latest developments in the Middle East,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism said.

“We continue to call upon all parties to take concrete steps to de-escalate the situation.

“All concerned parties should return to dialogue and engage in intense diplomatic efforts to establish and maintain peace with a view to ensuring stability in the Middle East region.”

The boilerplate text message used vague terms and did not name any of the countries involved.

A previous statement by the foreign ministry on the unprovoked attack by Israel on Iran, drew criticism from an opposition legislator, who slammed it as “A very unprincipled, unwise, and unimaginative statement”.

“Rather than issuing this statement it is better if they had issued no statement at all,” Rauff Hakeem told parliament.

“They don’t denounce the attack, they don’t name the attacker, they don’t even mention the principles of the UN Charter, international law, the principles of non-alignment.”

Read more
Sri Lanka foreign ministry trying to please western world: legislator

“Our foreign ministry doesn’t have the backbone to name the perpetrators.” (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 12:00 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals from June 1-18 increased 12 percent from a 66,522 a year ago to 74,570, with visitors from India forming the largest contingent, data from the island’s tourism promotion office showed.

There were 22,000 visitors from India, followed by 6,158 from the UK, and 4,789 from China.

There were 4,515 visitors from Bangladesh.

Total visitors so far this year are 1,104,373. (Colombo/Jun23/2025)

Monday June 23, 2025 11:31 am

ECONOMYNEXT- The price of Murban crude, the preferred oil used in Sri Lanka’s refinery has moved above Brent crude in recent days as Israel attacks on Iran continued with the US also joining the battle.

Murban crude was quoted around 78.49 US dollars a barrel, higher than the Brent price of 77.85 dollars on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s refinery needs light crudes to produce adequate amounts of diesel and petrol.

The refinery was built to refine Iranian light but after US sanctions Sri Lanka had to find alternative crudes to feed the refinery. (Colombo/June23/2025)