Sri Lanka’s new active credit card expansion continues in July, August 

ECONOMYNEXT – The expansion in new active credit cards in Sri Lanka continued in July and August, following a slowdown in June, official data showed.

New active credit cards in July recorded an increase of 11,408 and 17,663 in August, the Central Bank’s latest data showed.

The total number of active credit cards reached  2,297,783 by the end of August.

The number has expanded 6.1 percent or 131,597 in the first eight months of this year.

Active credit cards rose 7.8 percent (157,730) in 2025, following a 4.8 percent (91,371) rise in 2024. This growth was driven by the island nation’s economic recovery and strong credit card promotions amid falling interest rates.

However, the Central Bank reversed its dovish monetary policy and raised the key monetary policy rate by 100 basis points in May. After the tightening, the island nation saw a slowdown in credit card growth in June.

In May, active credit cards recorded an increase of 25,720. The Central Bank tightened the monetary policy in the last week of May.

Analysts said most banks tied up with supermarkets and other vendors to promote credit cards in the falling interest rate regime as the country’s economy showed a more-than-expected recovery.

However, with the tight monetary policy and fuel rationing since March, people may not be spending as much as they spent before that, analysts said.

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and stability have helped customers to use more credit since 2023.

Some analysts noted that higher interest (penalty) rates on credit cards also prompted some users to cancel their cards after the economic crisis and those same customers might now be actively using the cards due to declining rates.

With the Central Bank’s latest policy rate hike, analysts expected a slowdown in new active credit cards amid an expected increase in the penalty rate.

Active credit cards fell 1.8% (39,991) in 2023 after country declared bankruptcy in 2022 amid an unprecedented hike in the Central Bank’s monetary policy rates.

The central bank sharply increased interest rates in April 2022 to fight hyperinflation.

However, the inflation slowed to a deflation September 2024 before turning to positive in August last year amid the central bank’s reduction of key policy rates eight times since June 2023.

The Central Bank’s policy tightening cycle started after the inflation jumped in April following sharp rupee depreciation and higher inflation following the fuel price hikes. (Colombo/October 18/2026)