Economy of Sri Lanka
The mixed economy of Sri Lanka was worth $84 billion by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and $296.959 billion by purchasing power parity (PPP). The country had experienced an annual growth of 6.4 percent from 2003 to 2012, well above its regional peers. This growth was driven by the growth of non-tradable sectors, which the World Bank warned to be both unsustainable and unequitable. Growth has slowed since then. In 2019 with an income per capita of 13,620 PPP Dollars or 3,852 (2019) nominal US dollars, Sri Lanka was re-classified as a lower middle income nation with the population around 22 million (2021) by the World Bank from a previous upper middle income status.
Colombo, the financial centre of Sri Lanka | |
| Currency | Sri Lankan rupee (LKR) (Rs//=) (රු) (ரூ) |
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| Calendar year | |
Trade organisations | WTO, WCO, SAFTA, IOR-ARC, SCO, BIMSTEC, AIIB and others |
Country group |
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| Statistics | |
| Population | 22,156,000 (2021) |
| GDP |
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| GDP rank |
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GDP growth |
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GDP per capita |
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GDP per capita rank |
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GDP by sector |
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| 10.8% (Decrease from 73.7% in 2022) (July 2023) | |
Population below poverty line |
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| 39.8 medium (2016, World Bank) | |
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Labour force |
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Labour force by occupation |
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| Unemployment |
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Main industries | textiles & clothing, tourism, telecommunications, information technology services, banking, shipping, petroleum refining, construction and processing of tea, rubber, coconuts, tobacco and other agricultural commodities |
| External | |
| Exports | $15.1 billion (2021) |
Export goods | textiles and apparel, tea and spices, electronics, IT services, rubber manufactures, fish, precious stones |
Main export partners | |
| Imports | $20.6 billion (2021) |
Import goods | Mineral fuels including petroleum product (12.3%) Machinery including computers (9%) Electrical machinery, equipment Vehicles (7.1%) Textile fabric (5%) Plastics (3.7%) Cotton (3.3%) Heavy metals (3%) Ships and boats (2.8%) Iron, steel, aluminium (2.8%) |
Main import partners | |
FDI stock |
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| −$1.08 billion (2020) | |
Gross external debt | $48.73 billion(2022) (66.5% of GDP) |
| Public finances | |
| −11.1% (of GDP) (2020 prov.) | |
| Revenues | Rs1,890bn/US$10.4bn (2019 prov.) |
| Expenses | Rs2,915bn/US$16.0bn (2019 prov.) |
Credit rating | Standard & Poor's:
CC (Fx) Outlook: Negative Moody's: Caa2 Outlook: Stable Fitch: C Outlook: None at this level |
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Sri Lanka has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving extreme poverty and is on track to meet most of the other MDGs, outperforming other South Asian countries. Sri Lanka's poverty headcount index was 4.1% by 2016. Since the end of the three-decade-long Sri Lankan Civil War, Sri Lanka has begun focusing on long-term strategic and structural development challenges, and has financed several infrastructure projects.
High foreign debt, economic mismanagement under the governments of Gotabhaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa, and lower tourism revenue led to the country defaulting on its sovereign debt in April 2022. The economy contracted 7.8% in 2022, and the percentage of the population earning less than $3.65 a day doubled to around 25% of the population. On March 20, 2023, the IMF has loaned US$3 billion to the country as part of a 48-month debt relief program.