Central Bank agonizes over runaway expenditure, decreasing income

A combination of international and domestic factors had resulted in the Sri Lankan economy seeing a decline in 2015 as compared to 2014, as per the report of the Central Bank for the year 2015.

 

The report presented to President Mathripala Sirisena by Governor Arjuna Mahendran here on Tuesday, expressed dismay over runaway expenditure and decreasing income at home when the international economic situation was none too good, the NIE reported..

 

Gross official foreign exchange reserves declined to US$ 7.3 billion from US$ 8.2 billion. The Balance of Payments deficit stood at US$ 1.4 billion and the Lankan rupee had depreciated 9.3 percent in relation to the US dollar.

 

The budget deficit stood at 7.4 percent of the GDP in 2015, while it was 5.7 percent of the GDP in 2014. This made a mockery of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe governments plan to bring the deficit to 4.4 percent of the GDP. Government Debt increased to 76 percent of the GDP from 70.7 percent of the GDP in 2014. National Savings declined to 27.8 percent of GDP from 29.5 percent of the GDP an year earlier.

 

-NIE 

-Agencies