Ravi K sees 2016 economic growth at 6.2-6.5%

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s economy is likely to grow at 6.2% to 6.5% next year while the budget deficit will be reduced from this year’s estimated 6.9% of GDP, the country’s finance minister said.

The nation’s economic growth is expected to be in the range of 6.5 to 6.7% for 2015.

It grew at 6.7% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, accelerating from a downwardly-revised 4.4% in the first quarter. 

Sri Lanka’s economy grew 4.5% last year, when growth data was revised with a new base year.

“I think in the first two, three months it will be low. But it’ll be probably in the range of 6.2-6.5%,” Ravi Karunanayake told a Foreign Correspondents’ Association Forum late on Wednesday.

Karunanayake said the budget deficit for this year will be 6.9% of the gross domestic product, higher than the originally estimated 4.4%.

However, he expects that next year’s budget deficit will be smaller than that of 2015.

Karunanayake said his maiden full-year budget scheduled in the parliament on 20 November will be “capital oriented” and will aim for revenue that is higher than recurrent expenditure.

“Areas that had been unknowingly or unprofessionally neglected have been looked at. It will create revenue, but it won’t have a cost impact on the people,” Karunanayake said without elaborating on which sectors would be taxed.