Sri Lanka GDP down to 3.3-pct in Q3

Dec 16, 2017 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's  Gross Domestic Product growth rate for the third quarter of 2017 has been estimated as 3.3 percent, slower than 4.6 percent a year earlier, official data show. GDP for the third quarter of 2017 at constant (2010) price has reached up to 2,351,384 million rupees and the GDP reported for the third quarter of 2016 was 2,276,896 million rupees, the Census and Statistics Department (CSD) said in a statement. .During the third quarter of 2017, the ‘Services activities’ continued to expand further by 4.

3 percent, while ‘Industrial Activities’ recording a marginal growth rate of 1.9 percent. However, overall ‘Agricultural activities’ have reported a negative growth rate of 3.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, which the lowest growth rate in third quarter series, since 2010. ‘Agriculture sector’ of the economy has been affected badly mainly due to the unfavorable weather conditions (severe drought as well as heavy rainfalls) prevailed during almost last 2 years in many districts of the country. The 'Industrial activities', which shared the GDP by 27.8 percent at current price, has continued to expand further at a rate of 1.9 percent. Among the 'Industrial activities', the 'Construction' activity, which corresponds to the second highest share (7.4 percent) within the industry sector, grew by rate of 2.6 percent during this quarter when compared to the third quarter of 2016. The overall manufacturing activities have grown by 2.4 percent during the third quarter of 2017. Manufacture of textiles, wearing apparel and leather related products activity is the second largest contributor to the overall manufacturing industry, have reported a growth of 7.9 percent. Among the three major activities, the 'Services activities' which gave the highest contribution (56.

3 percent) to the GDP, has grown by 4.3 percent during the third quarter of 2017, when compared to the same quarter in the year 2016. The performance of Services sector was underpinned specially by the sub activities of 'Financial service activities', 'Telecommunication', 'Human health activities', and 'Insurance' which reported significantly higher growth rates of 19.6 percent, 19.5 percent,19.3 percent, and 10.9 percent respectively.