COLOMBO (Reuters) – Indian lender State Bank of India on Thursday said it completed its first non-dollar transaction with Sri Lanka, by paying for exports in Sri Lankan rupees as India looks to bring countries that are short of U.S. dollars into the trade mechanism.
The move comes as Sri Lanka grapples with its worst economic crisis since its independence, triggered by a shortage of dollars. The island nation’s forex reserves stood at $2.1 billion as of end-January.
(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru and Uditha Jayasinghe in Colombo; editing by Jason Neely)
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