Sri Lanka state revenues reach last year’s level in August: Treasury official

Sept 15, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's state revenues for August had reached last year's level in line with a recovery in import trade and domestic economic activities, and is expected to show a positive growth in this month, an official said. "In August we have reached break-even level and we are expecting revenues will continue to move up in the next few months," director general of fiscal policy in the Treasury, S R Attygalle said.

"This is in line with the general improvement in economic activities in the country and economic growth."

In the 6-months to June Sri Lanka reported a revenue drop of 6.15 percent over last year. But it was smaller than the 9.6 percent drop reported in the 4-months to April indicating a steady improvement.

Attygalle said the Treasury was still spending on infrastructure and which was still above 5.0 percent despite a difficult environment.

He said over the past few years infrastructure spending has been pushed up to 6.

0 percent and it was visible in the countryside with roads and other infrastructure that were coming up.

Sri Lanka is hoping to keep a 7.

0 percent of the gross domestic product deficit in 2009 on a program agreed with the International Monetary Fund, and Attygalle said the