COLOMBO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) on Tuesday released its annual report for the year 2019, highlighting low growth as a result of the Easter terror attacks in April last year and further challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
CBSL Governor W.D. Lakshman presented the 70th Annual Report of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Economic and Policy Development Mahinda Rajapaksa in the capital Colombo on Tuesday morning.
Governor Lakshman said the report was compiled by CBSL staff this year while the country has been placed under a lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its socio-economic effects.
"The Easter Sunday attacks had a severe impact on the tourism sector, and their adverse spillover effects were felt across the economy, worsening the sluggish growth of the economy and further dampening business confidence," the CBSL said in a statement.
"The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the containment measures adopted by all countries including Sri Lanka, and the resultant projected contraction in the global economy, triggered further uncertainties regarding the country's economic performance in 2020," the statement added.
According to the annual report, Sri Lanka's GDP grew 2.3 percent to 84 billion U.S. dollars at current market prices in 2019. The industrial sector saw the highest growth rate at 2.7 percent, while services grew 2.3 percent and agriculture stagnated at 0.6 percent.
The report said both headline inflation and core inflation remained in the 4 to 6 percent range in 2019 as a result of subdued demand. The annual average exchange rate with the U.S. dollar was 178.78, while the year-end exchange rate was 181.63.
In the capital market, Sri Lanka's All Share Price Index was 6,129.2 and the Standard & Poor's Sri Lanka 20 index was 2,937. The value of shares traded in 2019 was around 889 million U.S. dollars and market capitalization was 14.8 billion U.S. dollars.
The country's trade balance stood at a nearly 8-billion-U.S. dollar deficit, with export revenue of 11.9 billion U.S. dollars and import expenditure of 19.9 billion U.S. dollars, the report said.
On the demographic front, the report said the country's labor force participation rate was a provisional 52.3 percent, while the unemployment rate was a provisional 4.8 percent. Enditem
