<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has decided to reduce the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) by 100 basis points. After this rate revision, the SDFR has been brought down to 9.00 per cent and the lending rate has been reduced to 10.00 per cent.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The CBSL stated that the Board arrived at this decision at its meeting held yesterday. Further, the board aims of achieving and maintaining inflation at 5 per cent over the medium term, and allow the economy to reach and stabilise at the potential level.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">In addition, the Board viewed that with this reduction of policy interest rates, along with the monetary policy measures carried out since June 2023, sufficient monetary easing has been effected in order to stabilise inflation over the medium term.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Central Bank has reduced the rates by 650 basis points since June this year as it battled high inflation rates. Inflation in the island nation had hit 73 per cent last year at the peak of the economic crisis during which India had provided generous and unprecedented assistance of 4 Billion.</span></p>