Sri Lanka Economy - 2006

Economy - overview:
In 1977, Colombo abandoned statist economic policies and its import substitution trade policy for market-oriented policies and export-oriented trade. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2003, plantation crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average annual rate of about 5.5% in the 1990s, but 2001 saw the first contraction in the country's history, by 1.4%, due to a combination of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the global slowdown, and continuing civil strife. Growth recovered to 5% between 2002 and 2005. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% in the Middle East. They send home about $1 billion a year. The struggle by the Tamil Tigers of the north and east for a largely independent homeland continues to cast a shadow over the economy. In late December 2004, a major tsunami took about 31,000 lives, left more than 6,300 missing and 443,000 displaced, and destroyed an estimated $1.5 billion worth of property.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$87.15 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$21.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$4,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 17.7%
industry: 27.1%
services: 55.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
8.08 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 38%
industry: 17%
services: 45% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
8.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
22% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.5%
highest 10%: 28% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
34.4 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
11.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
27% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $3.804 billion
expenditures: $5.469 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2005 est.)

Public debt:
98.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef; fish

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

Industrial production growth rate:
6.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
7.308 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
6.796 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
79,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
-$388 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
$6.442 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
textiles and apparel, tea and spices; diamonds, emeralds, rubies; coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish

Exports - partners:
US 32.4%, UK 13.5%, India 6.8%, Germany 4.8% (2004)

Imports:
$8.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
textile fabrics, mineral products, petroleum, foodstuffs, machinery and transportation equipment

Imports - partners:
India 18%, Singapore 8.7%, Hong Kong 7.7%, China 5.7%, Iran 5.2%, Japan 5.1%, Malaysia 4.1% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$2.384 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
$11.59 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$577 million (1998)

Currency (code):
Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)

Exchange rates:
Sri Lankan rupees per US dollar - 100.498 (2005), 101.194 (2004), 96.521 (2003), 95.662 (2002), 89.383 (2001)