Despite global economic downturn:

GDp grows six percent

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Despite the global economic downturn, Sri Lanka recorded an economic growth rate of 6.0 percent in 2008, Executive Director Government Department of Census and Statistics D. B. P. S. Vidayaratne told a press conference in Colombo yesterday.

The national per capita income in US $ terms had risen from 1,034 in 2007 to 2,014 in 2008, she said. "During the first nine months of the year 2008, the economic growth rate stood at 6.5 percent but the last quarter of the year showed a decline remaining at 4.3 percent growth rate.

"The decline of the growth rate in the latter part of 2008 was due to the global economic recession that had affected our economy," she noted. However the Government's proper fiscal and monetary policies and incentives like the fertilizer subsidy to farmers, asweddumizing paddy lands lying fallow over several years coupled with the rapid growth rate recorded in the agriculture and fishery in the Eastern Province were the main factors that contributed to the good macro-economic growth rate of six percent, she said. The unemployment rate for the year excluding the North and East was 5.2 percent and the number of unemployed persons was estimated as 394,000 during the year, one of the lowest unemployment rates recorded for decades.

The main reason for it was the unprecedented number of 130,000 people being directly employed in agriculture, Vidayaratne said. The inflation rate for 2008 was 16.3 percent during the year based on GAP implicit price deflator as against that of 14.0 percent during the previous year, she said.

"Sri Lanka could be taken as a unique example considering the output features of indicators of economic performance in 2008.

"Few countries reported growth rates for the year under review but we had achieved these gains while fighting a war against terrorism," a report of the Census and Statistics Department said.