Economy - overview At independence in 1948, plantations growing tea, rubber, or coconuts and paddies growing rice for subsistence dominated Sri Lanka's economy, and, as late as 1970, plantation crops accounted for 93% of exports. 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 industries now are food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, and insurance and banking. By 1996 plantation crops made up only 20% of exports, while textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an annual average rate of 5.5% throughout the 1990s until a drought and a deteriorating security situation lowered growth to 3.8% in 1996. The economy rebounded in second half 1996, however, and continued to perform well in 1997 with growth of 6%. Sustained economic growth, coupled with population growth of only 1.1%, has pushed Sri Lanka from the ranks of the poorest countries in the world up to the threshold of the middle income countries. For the next round of reforms, the central bank of Sri Lanka recommends that Colombo expand market mechanisms in nonplantation agriculture, dismantle the government's monopoly on wheat imports, and promote more competition in the financial sector. A continuing cloud over the economy is the fighting between the Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, which has cost 50,000 lives in the past 14 years.

GDP purchasing power parity - $72.1 billion (1997 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 6% (1997 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $3,800 (1997 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 18.4%
industry: 18%
services: 63.6% (1996)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 9.6% (1997)

Labor force
total: 6.2 million (1997)
by occupation: services 46%, agriculture 37%, industry 17% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate 11% (1997 est.)

Budget
revenues: $3 billion
expenditures: $4.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $1 billion (1997 est.)

Industries processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural commodities; clothing, cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate 6.5% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity 1.557 million kW (1997 est.)

Electricity - production 4.86 billion kWh (1997 est.)

Electricity - consumption per capita 220 kWh (1997 est.)

Agriculture - products rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, roots, spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, meat

Exports
total value: $4.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, diamonds and other gems, rubber products, petroleum products (1995)
partners: US 34%, UK 9.5%, Japan 6.2%, Germany 5.8%, Belgium-Luxembourg 5.3% (1996)

Imports
total value: $5.4 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles, transport equipment, petroleum, building materials, sugar, wheat (1996)
partners: India 10.4%, Japan 9.1%, South Korea 6.5%, Hong Kong 6.5%, Taiwan 5.3% (1996)

Debt - external $9.4 billion (1996)

Economic aid
recipient: ODA, $620 million (1996 est.)

Currency 1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates Sri Lankan rupees (SLRes) per US$1 - 61.479 (January 1998), 58.995 (1997), 55.271 (1996), 51.252 (1995), 49.415 (1994), 48.322 (1993)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Sri Lanka on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Sri Lanka Economy 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Sri Lanka Economy 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.