Sri Lanka records 4.8% annual real GDP growth in 2015

The Sri Lankan economy reached an annual real GDP growth of 4.8 percent in 2015, while the nominal GDP recorded a growth of 7 percent to Rs. 11,183 billion.

According to Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) based on the disaggregation of the rebased series of National Accounts estimates (2010 constant prices) by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) as in previous years, Western province provided the highest contribution to GDP in 2015.

However, in line with recent trends, its share in the GDP declined to 41.2 percent in 2015 from 41.7 percent in 2014, contributing gradually to reduce regional disparities. The North Western province which recorded the second highest contribution to GDP in 2014, maintained its position in 2015 while its share also declined to 10.9 percent in 2015 from 11.1 per cent in 2014. The third highest contribution recorded from the Southern province at 10.4 percent in 2015 while the Central province contribution remained unchanged at 10.3 per cent. The contribution of the Sabaragamuwa province increased to 7 percent in 2015 from 6.8 percent in 2014.

The Eastern, North Central and Northern provinces increased their GDP contributions while Uva province contribution marginally decreased in 2015.In line with improvements in country’s economic environment, all provinces recorded nominal growth rates ranging between 5.4 per cent to 12.1 per cent in 2015. The North Central and Northern provinces recorded the highest growth rate of 12.1 percent, in nominal terms in 2015. Further, in 2015, Eastern province recorded a double digit growth rate of 10.9 percent, while those of Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces were higher than the country’s nominal growth rate of 7 percent. The Western province recorded a nominal growth rate equivalent to 5.8 percent and a growth rate of 5.4 percent was observed in the Uva province in 2015.

The Agriculture sector accounted for 1.7 percent of the GDP in the Western province in 2015, whereas it accounted in the range of 9.0 to 16.3 per cent of the GDP in other provinces. The contribution of the Agriculture sector to the PGDP increased in Northern, North Western, North Central and Uva provinces in 2015, while the same decreased in all the other provinces.

The highest Industry sector contribution to PGDP was observed in the Western province while the lowest was recorded from the Northern Province in 2015. The Northern, Eastern, North Western and Uva provinces’ contribution to Industry sector decreased, while that of all other provinces increased in 2015. The Services sector was the most dominant sector in 2015 accounting in the range of 49.0 and 60.6 percent of the PGDP across the provinces.

The contribution from the Services sector increased in the Southern, Eastern, North Western and Uva while that of all other provinces decreased in 2015.

The per capita income of the Western province was 1.4 times the national per capita income in 2015. However, per capita income ratio in the Western province declined marginally over the period of 2014 to 2015.

In Northern and North Central provinces, the per capita income ratio increased while in other provinces, the per capita income ratio remained unchanged except in the Uva province.

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