Sri Lanka will record an economic growth rate of around 6.5% for 2016, Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao said yesterday.
He also predicted that the Asian region will also increase their growth rate from the present 5.8% to 6%.
Speaking at a special press conference at Galle Face Hotel yesterday Nakao said the ADB was pleased in the direction the country was heading.
"The rule of law has been established and even the country has made steady progress with regard to post conflict issues."
However he cautioned that Sri Lanka needs to urgently reduce the budget deficit and look at ways and means to increase revenue.
It was also disclosed that the ADB has decided to increase their annual lending to Sri Lanka from US$ 457 million to US$ 700 million in 2016.
"This can even increase by another US$ 200 million."
He also said that the total lending for the next three years to Sri Lanka will be around US$ 2 billion.
"I look forward to working with the government in elaborating and implementing its development vision and strategy through increased ADB support," Nakao said.
He said that Sri Lanka is a country with a lot of potential.
"ADB is re-orienting its operations to meet the evolving needs of Sri Lanka as it moves to become an upper-middle-income country in the next few years," Nakao said.
Nakao expressed support for the government's public finance management reform initiative, which will boost the credibility of the budget framework and improve controls and transparency in budget execution.
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