5 December 2016 12:03 am
The data also showed that earnings from tourism arrivals recording US $ 249.3 million in October while the 10-month earnings peaked to US $ 2.75 billion as the arrivals rose by 14.6 percent to 1.66 million.
This is in comparison to the earnings of US $ 2.4 billion recorded for the same period last year. Meanwhile, the workers repatriated earnings of US $ 607.5 million in October, an increase of paltry 0.4 percent YoY while the worker remittances for the 10-month period increased by 3.5 percent YoY to US $ 5.99 billion.
Despite the inflows to the current account appear to remain still strong, inflows to the capital account of the balance of payment by way of foreign direct investment flows have been extremely low. But foreign debt repayments have been piling up.
A rate hike by the Fed could also weigh on the Lankan economy as the dollar has begun to strengthen while over Rs.40 billion worth of government securities have been sold on a net basis by the foreigners during the last seven weeks as part of the emerging market bond sell-offs.
Strengthening of the US dollar against the rupee will lead to higher debt servicing burden for the government.