Sri Lanka Economy:
In 1977, Colombo abandoned statist economic policies and its import substitution trade policy for market-oriented policies and export-oriented trade. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2003, plantation crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% in the early 1990s until a drought and a deteriorating security situation lowered growth to 3.8% in 1996. The economy rebounded in 1997-2000 with average growth of 5.3%, but 2001 saw the first contraction in the country's history, -1.4%, due to a combination of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the global slowdown, and continuing civil strife. Growth recovered to 4.0% in 2002 and to 5.2% in both 2003 and 2004. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% in the Middle East. They send home about $1 billion a year. The struggle by the Tamil Tigers of the north and east for a largely independent homeland continues to cast a shadow over the economy. In late December 2004, a major tsunami took about 31,000 lives, left more than 6,300 missing and 443,000 displaced, and destroyed an estimated $1.5 billion worth of property.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$80.58 billion (2004 est.)
GDP — real growth rate:
5.2% (2004 est.)
GDP — per capita:
purchasing power parity: $4,000 (2004 est.)
GDP — composition by sector:
agriculture: 19.1%
industry: 26.2%
services: 54.7%
(2004)
Labor force:
7.8 million (2004 est.)
Labor force — by occupation:
agriculture: 38%, industry: 17%, services: 45% (1998 est.)
Unemployment rate:
7.8% (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line:
22% (1997 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.5%
highest 10%: 28% (1995)
Distribution of family income — Gini index:
34.4 (1995 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
5.8% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
22.4% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $3.34 billion
expenditures: $4.69 billion including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Public debt:
104.3% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture — products:
Rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef
Industries:
rubber processing, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural commodities; telecommunications, insurance, and banking; clothing, cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco
Industrial production growth rate:
7.1% (2004 est.)
Electricity — production:
6.7 billion kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — consumption:
6.23 billion kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — exports:
0 kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity — imports:
0 kWh (2002 est.)
Oil — production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil — consumption:
75,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil — exports:
NA
Oil — imports:
NA
Current account balance:
$-587.3 million (2004 est.)
Exports:
$5.31 billion (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Exports — commodities:
textiles and apparel, tea and spices, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish
Exports — partners:
US 32.4%, UK 13.5%, India 6.8%, Germany 4.8% (2004)
Imports:
$7.27 billion (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Imports — commodities:
textiles fabrics, mineral products, petroleum, foodstuffs, machinery and transportation equipment
Imports — partners:
India 18%, Singapore 8.7%, Hong Kong 7.7%, China 5.7%, Iran 5.2%, Japan 5.1%, Malaysia 4.1% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$2.48 billion (2004 est.)
Debt — external:
$10.85 billion (2004 est.)
Economic aid — recipient:
$577 million (1998 est.)
Currency:
Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)
Exchange rates:
Sri Lankan rupees per US$: 101.19 (2004 est.), 96.52 (2003 est.), 95.66 (2002 est.), 89.38 (2001 est.), 77.01 (2000 est.)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
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