Sri Lanka central bank is unlikely to buy more gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) right now as the island nation has already reached its required reserve level, its governor said on Thursday.

The IMF has said it would soon begin sales of 191.3 tonnes of gold remaining in its plan to raise new resources for lending, with traders saying it may seek buyers among Asian central banks.

"Unlikely right now," Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal told Reuters when asked whether Sri Lankan central bank is considering purchase of gold from the IMF.

"We have reached the certain level we wanted to reach. I think that is comfortable for us. But we will be watching the situation how best we want to diversify our reserves."

The price of gold has increased by 20 percent over the past two years. The prospects of more buying from central banks helped fuel a rally to a record above $1,200 early last December.

Sri Lanka's reserves are now at over $5 billion including gold, according to the central bank data.

The central bank, which does not sell gold locally, has not given details of its gold reserves so far.

The IMF sold 10 tons of gold to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in November.

The IMF announced last year it would sell 403.3 tonnes of gold, about one-eighth of its total stock, to diversify its sources of income and increase low-cost lending to poor.

Until now, the gold has only been made available to central banks on a first-come-first-serve basis. So far, India -- the world's biggest consumer of gold -- Mauritius and Sri Lanka have purchased a total of 212 tonnes of gold from the IMF.

Source Reuters