COLOMBO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's central bank said on Friday that it will take steps to prevent foreign currency flowing into the country through informal transfer channels.
A lot of money is sent using informal transfer systems such as hawala and undiyal, and action must be taken against this, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Nandalal Weerasinghe told a press conference.
The governor said some Sri Lankans are also sending money out through these systems to pay for imports, adding that a circular on tackling the hawala and undiyal systems will be issued soon.
"Those who want to import and export goods must do this using the formal banking system. We will get dollars into the banking system and that's good for the economy," he said.
Sri Lanka has been suffering a shortage of foreign exchange with its reserve assets standing at around 1.9 billion U.S. dollars at the end of March. ■