Sri Lanka's central bank raised interest rates in an unexpected move on Friday, to help finalise an International Monetary Fund's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, it said in a statement.
The bank raised its standing deposit facility rate and standing lending facility rate by 100 basis points each to 15.50% and 16.50%, respectively.
The country is awaiting approval of a $2.9 billion IMF bailout package.
Its economy has been squeezed by its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, with growth contracting by an estimated 9.2% last year amid soaring inflation that hit 50% in February.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Swati Bhat and Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Robert Birsel and John Stonestreet)
