Sri Lanka Economy 1997

Economy - overview Industry - dominated by the fast-growing apparel industry - has surpassedagriculture as the main source of export earnings. The economy has been plaguedby high rates of unemployment since the late 1970s. Economic growth acceleratedin 1991-95 as domestic conditions began to improve and conditions for foreigninvestment brightened. In 1996, however, a drought, slow economic reform,and civil war exacted a heavy economic toll. Insufficient monsoon rains causedpower cuts that hurt industrial and agricultural production, and the stepped-upTamil insurgency reduced foreign investment and tourism - two key sourcesof foreign exchange. Meanwhile, Colombo's counterinsurgency efforts causeddefense expenditures to overshoot budget targets by 42%. In 1997, agriculturalproduction should recover from the effects of last year's drought, but industrywill still be hampered by high real interest rates, slow improvement in foreigninvestment inflows, and stalled progress on privatization. The government'smain challenge this year will be to curb defense and social welfare spendingto cut the budget deficit as a percentage of GDP in half by 1998, as stipulatedin its deficit reduction program.

GDP purchasing power parity - $69.7 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 3.7% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $3,760 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 23.8%
industry: 24.7%
services : 51.5% (1994)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 15.9% (1996)

Labor force
total: 6.2 million (1994)
by occupation: agriculture 42%, services 40%, industry 18% (1994)

Unemployment rate 13.1% (1994)

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

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

Industrial production growth rate 6.2% (1996 est.)

Electricity - capacity 1.56 million kW (1994)

Electricity - production 4.33 billion kWh (1994)

Electricity - consumption per capita 236 kWh (1995 est.)

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

Exports
total value: $4 billion (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, petroleum products, diamonds, other gems,rubber products (1994)
partners : US 34.8%, UK 8.9%, Germany 6.9%, Belgium-Luxembourg 5.9% (1994)

Imports
total value: $5 billion (c.i.f., 1996 est.)
commodities: textiles, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, petroleum, buildingmaterials, sugar (1994)
partners: Japan 11.0%, India 8.5%, South Korea 6.8%, Hong Kong 6.6%, Taiwan 5.2%,Singapore 4.9% (1994)

Debt - external $9.6 billion (1995)

Economic aid
recipient : ODA, $602 million (1995 est.)

Currency 1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates Sri Lankan rupees (SLRes) per US$1 - 56.921 (January 1997), 55.271 (1996),51.252 (1995), 49.415 (1994), 48.322 (1993), 43.830 (1992)

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Sri Lanka on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Sri Lanka Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Sri Lanka Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.