Economy of Sri Lanka

Economy of Sri Lanka
	Colombo, the financial centre of Sri Lanka
Currency	Sri Lankan rupee (LKR, Rs)
Fiscal year	Calendar year
Trade organisations	WTO, WCO, SAFTA, IOR-ARC, BIMSTEC, AIIB
Country group	Developing/Emerging; Lower-middle income economy;
Statistics
Population	21,763,170 (60th); (2024 Census)
GDP	$98.98 billion (nominal, 2024); $342.6 billion (PPP, 2024);
GDP rank	71st (nominal, 2024); 62nd (PPP, 2024);
GDP growth	-2.3% (FY2023); 5.0% (FY2024); 5.4% (Q4 2024);
GDP per capita	$4,516 (nominal, 2024); $15,000 (PPP, 2024);
GDP per capita rank	120th (nominal, 2024); 111th (PPP, 2024);
GDP by sector	Agriculture: 7.5%; Industry: 26.7%; Services: 59.2%; (2024)
Inflation (CPI)	-2.0% (deflation) (April 2025)
Population below poverty line	3.9% living on less than $2.15/day (International poverty rate, 2025e); 22.7% living on less than $3.65/day (Lower middle-income poverty rate, 2025e);
Gini coefficient	37.7 medium (2019, World Bank)
Human Development Index	0.776 high (2023) 89th; 0.630 medium (IHDI);
Labour force	8.316 million (2024 est); 47.4% participation rate (2024 est);
Labour force by occupation	agriculture: 26.4%; industry: 25.4%; services: 48.3%; (2024-3Q);
Unemployment	4.7% (2022); 4.7% (2023); 4.4% (2024 est);
Main industries	textiles & clothing, tourism, telecommunications, information technology services, banking, shipping, petroleum refining, construction and processing of tea, rubber, coconuts, tobacco and other agricultural commodities
External
Exports	$16.172 billion (2024); merchandise exports US$ 12.705 billion (2024); service exports US$ 3.467 billion (2024);
Export goods	textiles and apparel, tea and spices, electronics, IT services, rubber manufactures, fish, Mineral
Main export partners	USA 25.29%; UK 9.18%; India 6.09%; Germany 5.75%; Italy 5.35%; (2020);
Imports	$18.9 billion (2024)
Import goods	Mineral fuels including petroleum product (12.3%); Machinery including computers (9%); Electrical machinery, equipment ; Vehicles (7.1%); Textile fabric (5%); Plastics (3.7%); Cotton (3.3%); Heavy metals (3%); Ships and boats (2.8%); Iron, steel, aluminium (2.8%)
Main import partners	China 22.96%; India 19.30%; UAE 5.57%; Malaysia 4.08%; Singapore 3.96%; (2020);
FDI stock	US$13.05 Billion (2019); Abroad: NA;
Current account	$1.746 billion (2024); +1.8% of GDP ;
Gross external debt	$57.2 billion (2024) (57.8% of GDP)
Public finances
Foreign reserves	$6.5 billion (March 2025);
Budget balance	−6.7% (of GDP) (2025)
Revenues	Rs 4,990 billion (2025)
Expenses	Rs 7,190 billion (2025)
Credit rating	Standard & Poor's:; CC (Fx); Outlook: Negative; Moody's:; Caa1; Outlook: Stable; Fitch:; CCC+ (Domestic/Foreign); B- (Country ceiling); Outlook: None at this level;
	All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

The mixed economy of Sri Lanka was valued at LKR 29.89 trillion (around $99 billion) in 2024 by gross domestic product (GDP) and $342.6 billion by purchasing power parity (PPP) Sri Lanka's economy expanded by 5.0% in 2024, marking a strong recovery from the 2022 economic crisis.

Sri Lanka has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving extreme poverty and is on track to meet most of the other MDGs, outperforming other South Asian countries. Sri Lanka's poverty headcount index was 4.1% by 2016. Since the end of the three-decade-long Sri Lankan Civil War, Sri Lanka has begun focusing on long-term strategic and structural development challenges and has financed several infrastructure projects.

High foreign debt, economic mismanagement under the governments of Gotabhaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa, and reduced tourism revenue led to the country defaulting on its sovereign debt in April 2022. The economy contracted 7.8% in 2022, and the percentage of the population earning less than $3.65 a day doubled to around 25% of the population. On March 20, 2023, the IMF loaned US$3 billion to the country as part of a 48-month debt relief program.