Sri Lankan economy grows by 6.8%

Sri Lanka's economy grew by 6.8% in the second quarter of 2013, improving from a 6% growth in the first quarter of the year, the state-run Census and Statistics Department said in its latest report.

Sri Lanka's economy grew by 6.8% in the second quarter of 2013, improving from a 6% growth in the first quarter of the year, the state-run Census and Statistics Department said in its latest report.

However, the agriculture sector, which has the highest employment in the economy, recorded a negative 1.1% growth in the second quarter.

Industry and services sectors recorded 10.1% and 6.6% growth respectively in the same period, the department said.

The tourism business registered the strongest growth at 21.1% followed by construction, which grew at 17.8%, with power generation coming in third at 16.2%.

Construction was mainly driven by government expenditure on large scale infrastructure development, which increased by 39.55% in the second quarter against the same period in 2012.

Mining, transport, banking and real estate were the other sectors that posted growth in the second quarter.

Inflation declined to 6.8% from 7.5% in the same period of 2012, the report added.

The export trade sector recorded a 3.8% increase in the second quarter, as against 2.3% in the same quarter of the previous year, the report noted.