Sri Lanka electricity generation falls for second month

Nov 30, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's electricity generation fell in absolute terms by 1.





5 percent to 971 GigaWatt hours (millions of units) in September 2012 from a year earlier, declining two months in a row, pointing to a slowing economy. Last year Sri Lanka's economy was given an unexpected boost by nearly 200 billion rupees of printed money injected to the banking system by the Central Bank to sterilize foreign exchange sales, driving spending and imports to unsustainable heights.

State enterprises took large volumes of credit to subsidize energy and promote unsustainable consumption among users and trigger a balance of payments crisis.

Updated In August, power generation fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 977GWh, according to data published by Sri Lanka's central bank.

In the nine months to September electricity generation grew 2.

8 percent to 8.8 GWh, sharply down from a 7.5 percent growth in 2011 to 11,522 GWh.

Electricity generation was growing in absolute terms until July 2012.

In August power cuts began following a breakdown in a coal plant.

Power cuts themselves can slow an economy. In 2001, negative economic growth was partly associated with power cuts, but many large firms how have back up p