Economic growth expands at a faster pace of 5.5% in 1Q: Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry said yesterday that the country’s economic growth has taken an upward trend during the first quarter of this year against the growth in the same period of the previous year.  

The growth rate has been maintained at 5.5% during the first three months of 2016 against 4.4% in the same period of last year.

The economic growth in the first quarter of 2016 was mainly attributable to the expansion of Industry and Services related activities with moderate growth in the Agriculture sector. The Industry sector expanded significantly by 8.3% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to a mere growth of 1.4% in the same quarter of 2015. The growth in the Industry sector was driven by sub-sectors such as construction, food and beverages, textiles and apparel, electricity, and manufacturing of furniture, machinery, wood, paper products and refined petroleum products.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three months of 2015 is reported as Rs. 2,724,459 million and it has increased to Rs. 2,979,746 million during the first quarter of 2016. The Service Sector has contributed Rs. 1,562,677 million which is a 6.7% growth.  The Industry Sector has contributed a growth of 10.1% or Rs. 940,988 million to GDP. The contribution by the Agricultural Sector is Rs. 221,774 million.

During the corresponding period, the Gross National Income reported as Rs. 2,903,036 million or a growth of 9.6%.  

This is against Rs. 2,649,323 million during the first quarter of 2015.  This is a growth of Rs. 253,713 million this year.

Sri Lanka has exported goods worth Rs. 392,671 million during the first quarter of this year against the Rs. 378,918 million worth goods that were exported in 2015.  At the same time, goods worth Rs. 661,342 million have been imported during the first quarter of this year and it is significant that 12.5% worth of goods out of the total imports are investment related goods.  The worth of investment related equipment imported during the first quarter of 2016 is Rs. 179,001 million.