Sri Lanka's foreign reserves rose to 5,835 million US dollars in April from 5,730 million US dollars in March, which was equal to about 3.3 months of imports.

In 2011 Sri Lanka sold more than two billion US dollars of foreign reserves and sterilized the sales, firing unsustainable domestic demand and imports.

Sri Lanka's external trade has now started to contract, signaling a slowdown in the economy, with imports falling 3.3% in March to 1,441 billion US dollars, while exports fell at a steeper 9.2% to 680 million US dollars.