{"id":66,"date":"2026-10-01T14:24:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/01\/sri-lankas-2026-economic-growth-likely-to-hit-three-year-low\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:24:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:24:45","slug":"sri-lankas-2026-economic-growth-likely-to-hit-three-year-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/01\/sri-lankas-2026-economic-growth-likely-to-hit-three-year-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s 2026 economic growth likely to hit three-year low\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span>ECONOMYNEXT \u2013 Sri Lanka\u2019s economic growth is likely to slow down this year compared to the last two years amid Middle Eastern escalation dragging down the island nation\u2019s economic activities\u00a0with high fuel prices.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>Sri Lanka, recovering from an unprecedented economic crisis in 2022, expanded by 5 percent in both 2023 and 2024 after a contraction in the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span>However, it is expected to slow down this year weighed down by the impact of the Middle Eastern crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>Already, the country witnessed 4.2 percent economic growth in the second quarter of this year, its lowest in eight quarters.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said the growth will be above 4 percent this year, including the second half of this year.<br \/>\n<\/span>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u201cI think it is too early for us to give a number. But what we say is, second-half growth looks like it will remain above 4% for the next two quarters, based on the activity indicators. the actual activities taking place,\u201d the Governor told reporters in a media briefing.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u201cWe see growth will be above 4% in the two halves, but an annual projection we have not done yet; we will see later.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>In January while launching the\u00a0 Central Bank\u2019s policy agenda for this year, Weerasinghe said<\/span>Sri Lanka\u2019s economic growth will be around 4-5 percent.\n<\/div>\n<div><span>In June,\u00a0Deputy Finance Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando said\u00a0Sri Lanka still hopes to achieve 5 percent economic growth this year despite monetary policy tightening and falling consumption amid rising prices.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u201cThe government projection is up to the government. I don\u2019t think we\u00a0 should not comment on that,\u201d the Governor said.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>\u201cThe IMF has 3.5%. The government has something, the World Bank has given a projection, the ADB has another projection, so that is based on their own assumptions. We can comment on our projections only.\u201d (Colombo\/October 01\/2026)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ECONOMYNEXT \u2013 Sri Lanka\u2019s economic growth is likely to slow down this year compared to the last two years amid Middle Eastern escalation dragging down the island nation\u2019s economic activities\u00a0with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sripuwath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}