As of Nov. 30, foreign investors owned 264.3 billion Sri Lanka rupees ($2.32 billion) worth government securities out of a total 2.7 trillion outstanding T-bills and T-bonds. The raise will accommodate $650 million in foreign investment.

Since the devaluation, yields in government securities have risen between 69-140 basis points, pressuring market interest rates, Reuters further said.
The Central Bank on Tuesday said it would increase the foreign investment limit in government securities by 2.5 percent to cut pressure on market interest rates.

"If there is significant depreciation pressure, we will depreciate the currency by a few cents. If there is appreciation pressure, we will appreciate by a few cents," says Dharma Dheerasinghe, the Deputy Central Bank Governor, in an interview with Reuters.
The rupee was devalued 3 percent on Nov. 22.

"There won't be surprises in the currency in the future. There won't be substantial appreciation or depreciation," he said.

The Deputy Central Bank Governor, however, said the dollar sales helped to sustain the $50 billion economy's near 8 percent growth.

"We could have easily stopped providing dollars to the market, and intervention. Then what would have happened is some of those very important imports wouldn't have come," he said, referring to oil and infrastructure construction materials.

Had the central bank not supplied dollars to facilitate an additional $1 billion of oil imports for power generation after poor rainfall cut hydropower output drastically, there would have been power cuts, he said.