Economy Sri Lanka
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):
$86.07 billion (2005 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$21.62 billion (2005 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
6% (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$4,300 (2005 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 17.8% industry: 27.6% services: 54.5% (2005 est.)
Labor force: 8.08 million (2005 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 38% industry: 17% services: 45% (1998 est.)
Unemployment rate:
7.7% (2005 est.)