Tuesday 15 December 2015

Sri Lanka's GDP grows 4.8-pct in 3Q, 2015

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's gross domestic product grew 4.8 percent in the third quarter of 2015 from a year earlier, the statistics department said.

The GDP for Sri Lanka for the third quarter of 2015 (July - September) reached 2,158,327 million rupees, a statement said.

“The economic growth rate of the country for the first three quarters has been estimated as 5.2 percent,” it said.

The services sector, which contributed 57.1 percent of GDP had the slowest growth during the third quarter of 2015, at 3.4 percent from the year before.

The sector with the fastest growth – of 6.9 percent – was agriculture, which contributed 7.2 percent to GDP, while industry, whose contribution was 26.7 percent, grew at 6.2 percent, a statement said.

The GDP was calculated according to the new 2010 base year.

The full statement by the Department of Census and Statistics under the Ministry of National Policy and Economic Development follows:


Gross Domestic Product by Production Approach – 3rd Qtr 2015

The Gross Domestic Product for Sri Lanka for the third quarter of 2015 (July, August, September) reportedly reached up to Rs. Million 2,158,327. The GDP value reported for the third quarter of 2014 was Rs. Million 2,059,070 resulting a positive growth rate of 4.8 percent for the third quarter of 2015. Further the economic growth rate of the country for the first three quarters has been estimated as 5.2 percent.

The four major components of the economy: Agriculture, Industry, Services and Taxes less subsidies has contributed their share to the total GDP at Constant price (2010) by 7.2 percent, 26.7 percent, 57.1 percent and 9.0 percent respectively in the third quarter of 2015. During the third quarter of 2015, all the three major economic activities have shown a significance increase in the growth rates. It reported 6.9 percent, 6.2 percent and 3.4 percent growth rates respectively for Agriculture, Industries and Services activities.

Among the sub activities of Agriculture, ‘Growing of rice’ reported a very high growth (61.1 percent) and ‘Growing of oleaginous fruits; including coconut’ reported 7.9 percent of increase during the third quarter of 2015, compared to the same quarter of 2014. Meanwhile ‘Growing of tea’ and ‘Marine fishing’ suffered major falls in the growth rates as 3.9 percent and 8.6 percent respectively during this quarter.

Among the industrial activities, the sub activities of ‘Mining and quarrying’, ‘Manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco’ and ‘Manufacture of wood and products of wood’ have shown a striking increase of 9.6 percent, 8.8 percent and 35.2 percent respectively, during the third quarter of 2015. In addition the ‘Manufacture of textile and wearing apparel’ and ‘Manufacture of chemical products’ activities have reported a decline of 2.4 percent and 4.2 percent respectively, over the period of under consideration.

During the third quarter of 2015, specially the sub activities of ‘Telecommunication’, ‘Financial service activities’, ‘Insurance, reinsurance and pension funding’ and ‘Wholesale and retail trade’ have experienced a significance increase in the growth rates by 18.9 percent, 11.1 percent, 16.1 percent and 5.6 percent respectively. In the meantime the sub activities of ‘Accommodation, food and beverage serving activities’, Professional services’, ‘Education’ and ‘Human health activities’ experienced declines of the growth rates by 1.7 percent, 19.6 percent, 9.2 percent and 6.7 percent respectively, during the period of concern.

Gross Domestic Product by Expenditure Approach – 2010 to 2014 (Annual estimates)

GDP by Expenditure Approach measures the value of goods and services produced in terms of the expenditure or consumption by institutional sectors namely; households, government, financial institutions, non-financial institutions, and Non-profit Institutions serving Households (NPISH). The GDP by Expenditure approach is comprised by mainly, Final Consumption Expenditure, Gross Capital Formation and External Balance of Goods and Services. In year 2014, the first two major components have been contributed to the total GDP by 74.8 percent, 33.1 percent respectively and External Balance of Goods and Services have been contributed negatively to the total GDP by 7.9 percent.

Gross Domestic Product by income Approach – 2010 to 2014 (Annual estimates)

The Gross Domestic Product by Income approach measures the income generated by the production process of each sectors namely Non Financial institutions, Financial institutions, General Government, Household and Non-profit Institutions serving Households. It is consisted mainly by Compensation of employees, Net operating surplus, Mixed income, Other taxes less subsidies on production, Consumption of fixed capital and Taxes less subsidies on products. These components shared the GDP by 26.5 percent, 49.3 percent, 6.2 percent, 2.2 percent, 6.5 percent and 9.3 percent respectively in year 2014.

Sri Lankan shares recover from over 8-month low in thin trade

Reuters: The Sri Lankan share index recovered on Tuesday from its lowest close in more than eight months hit in the previous session led by blue chips and large-cap stocks, despite foreign investors staying away ahead of an interest rate decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve later this week.

The main stock index ended 0.26 percent firmer at 6,820.77, recovering from Monday's more-than-eight-month closing low.

"It is a typical year-end market. Most of the investors are on leave," a stockbroker said.

Turnover stood at 571.3 million rupees ($3.98 million), around half of this year's daily average of 1.1 billion rupees.

Foreign investors sold a net 104.6 million rupees worth of shares on Tuesday, extending the year-to-date net foreign outflow to 4.04 billion rupees worth of equities.

Stocks rose in Europe and Asia on Tuesday, though volatile oil prices kept investors cautious before a widely anticipated increase in U.S. interest rates later in the week.

Market is expected to be lacklustre due to year-end holidays from next week due to Christmas and the turnover is expected to be low.

Conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc ended 1.15 percent up, while development lender DFCC Bank closed 1.93 percent higher.

($1 = 143.5000 Sri Lankan rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Sunil Nair)