Economy slows down to 6.4% in Q4 2014, annual growth 7.4%

Tuesday, 17 March 2015 01:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The country’s economy slowed down in the fourth quarter of last year significantly from the growth in previous three months while the annual economic growth ended at 7.4%. Sri Lanka’s economic output as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fourth quarter (Q4) from October-December of 2014 slowed to 6.4% year-on-year, data released by the Census and Statistics Department today shows. The main industrial sector, which includes textiles and garments, construction and manufacturing, grew 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 10.7% recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. The 6.7% growth in services sector, which includes tourism, telecommunications, ports and transport, in Q4 was marginally higher than the 6.5% recorded in the same quarter of 2013. However, the growth in the agriculture sector which was affected by the heavy floods in late November and December, declined 3.3% in the 2014 fourth quarter compared to the growth of 10.4% in the same period last year. The services sector contributed 58.0 % to the GDP and the industry sector provided 33.9 % of income while agriculture sector contributed only 8.2%. GDP growth in Sri Lanka was consistently robust in the first half of 2014: 7.6% in the first quarter and 7.8% in the second while the third quarter recorded 7.7%. Sri Lanka’s annual economy grew 7.4% last year, higher than 7.2% in 2013, but slightly below the Asian Development Bank’s forecast of 7.5% and the Central Bank’s estimate of 7.8%.