FDI Inflows Doubled during the First Nine Months: FDI inflows to Sri Lanka during the first nine months of 2018 registered a 1.3 fold increase to USD 1,856 Mn from USD 796 Mn recorded during the corresponding period of 2017. Considering the historical data, this is the highest ever FDI inflow to Sri Lanka in the first nine months of a year and even for a full year.
Tourist Arrivals for 2018 Reached 2 Mn Mark in November: The cricket loving Barmy Army from the UK boosted tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in November, registering a growth of 17% to 195,582 with arrivals from UK soaring by 61% to 22,000. Total arrivals during the first eleven months of the year reached the 2 million mark to finish at 2.08 Mn in November 2018.
Growth slides further in 3Q: GDP growth fell to 2.9% in the third quarter of 2018 compared to a 3.2% growth in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Growth was driven lower due to a growth of 1.9% in the Industry sector in comparison to 5.3% recorded in 2017. GDP growth for the first nine months of 2018 stood at 3.3%.
In agricultural sector, the rice output grew by 46,96 % reserving from the 38.2 % contraction experienced a year earlier. Manufacturing grew by 2.2 % with apparel growing by 3.79% and contruction activities up by 2.5 %. In service sector, telecommunication services grew by 14.8 % meanwhile financial services grew by 12.4 %.
The infrastructure sector attracted the highest amount of FDls during the first nine months of 2018 accounting for USD 1,416 Mn which is a 3.2 fold growth compared to the USD 347 Mn received during the same period of 2017. Port container terminals recorded USD 850 Mn as inflows accounting for 58% of the total amount received for the infrastructure sector and even higher than FDI received for all sectors during the first nine months of 2017. This growth was mainly driven by the transfer related to the Hambantota Port terminal.
China was the top investor in Sri Lanka during the period under review (USD 1,039 Mn) followed by India (USD 305 Mn), Hong Kong (USD 138 Mn) and Malaysia (USD 88 Mn).
More on Sri Lanka Economy : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q80s8GoCfXMx4lJ31x6oHkkIillbuxgc/view
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