Sri Lanka sees 5% GDP growth in 2024 after 2 years of contraction
The quarter marked the highest rate of growth since the current recovery took off six quarters ago in Q3 2023, gross domestic product (GDP) estimates released by the country’s census and statistics department show.
In US dollar terms, the country’s economy was worth $98.98 billion at the end of 2024.
The 2024 GDP growth is also the highest since 2014, when the economy grew by 5 per cent.
The per capita income too rose to $4,516 in 2024, the first time the country managed to record a per capita income in excess of $4,000. The appreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee against the US dollar also helped higher US dollar incomes for the people last year as the Sri Lankan rupee strengthened by about 10 per cent, after rising by 12 per cent in 2023.
The economy faced its worst decline in 2022 when growth fell by 7.3 per cent before containing the contraction to 2.3 per cent in 2023.
“By facilitating and benefitting from these expansions of the economy, both export and import volume indices had shown remarkable increases throughout the year 2024 with increased container and cargo handling in the ports of Sri Lanka”, the department said.
The industry grew by 13.1 per cent in Q4 2024 and contributed 26.7 per cent to the economy.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
