Mixed performances by provinces in GDP

The country's provinces produced mixed performances in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year with the dominance of the Western region continuing to wane and other areas improving except Uva.

The Lankan economy reached an annual real GDP growth of 4.8% in 2015, while the nominal GDP recorded a growth of 7.0% to Rs. 11,183 billion.

The Central Bank said as in previous years, the Western Province provided the highest contribution to GDP in 2015. However, in line with recent trends, its share in the GDP declined to 41.2% in 2015 from 41.7% in 2014, contributing gradually to reduce regional disparities. The North Western Province which recorded the second highest contribution to GDP in 2014, maintained its position in 2015 while its share also declined to 10.9% in 2015 from 11.1% in 2014. The third highest contribution was recorded from the Southern Province at 10.4% in 2015 while the Central Province contribution remained unchanged at 10.3%. The contribution of the Sabaragamuwa Province increased to 7.0% in 2015 from 6.8% in 2014. The Eastern, North Central and Northern Provinces increased their GDP contributions while the Uva Province contribution marginally decreased in 2015.

In line with improvements in the country’s economic environment, all provinces recorded nominal growth rates ranging between 5.4% to 12.1% in 2015. The North Central and Northern Provinces recorded the highest growth rate of 12.1%, in nominal terms in 2015. Further, in 2015, the Eastern Province recorded a double digit growth rate of 10.9%, while those of the Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces were higher than the country’s nominal growth rate of 7.0. The Western Province recorded a nominal growth rate equivalent to 5.8% and a growth rate of 5.4% was observed in the Uva Province in 2015.

Considerable variations in the structure of the Provincial Gross Domestic Product (PGDP) can be observed across provinces in 2015. The agriculture sector accounted for 1.7% of the GDP in the Western Province in 2015, whereas it accounted in the range of 9.0 to 16.3% of the GDP in other provinces.

The contribution of the agriculture sector to the PGDP increased in the Northern, North Western, North Central and Uva Provinces in 2015, while the same decreased in all the other provinces. The highest industrial sector contribution to the PGDP was observed in the Western Province while the lowest was recorded from the Northern Province in 2015.

The Northern, Eastern, North Western and Uva Provinces’ contribution to the industrial sector decreased, while that of all other provinces increased in 2015. The services sector was the most dominant sector in 2015 accounting for between 49.0 and 60.6% of the PGDP across the provinces. The contribution from the services sector increased in the Southern, Eastern, North Western and Uva Provinces while that of all other provinces decreased in 2015.

The per capita income of the Western Province was 1.4 times the national per capita income in 2015. However, the per capita income ratio in the Western Province declined marginally over the period from 2014 to 2015. In the Northern and North Central Provinces, the per capita income ratio increased while in other provinces, the per capita income ratio remained unchanged except in the Uva Province.

The PGDP for 2015 has been computed by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), based on the disaggregation of the rebased series of National Accounts estimates (2010 constant prices) by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS).

In the estimation of PGDP, the value of each line item in GDP (base year 2010) is apportioned using relevant indicators at the provincial level.