Sri Lanka's economy grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, led by the services sector which accounts for over half of Gross Domestic Product, the statistics office said.
Gross Domestic Product for the January to March 2015 period increased up to 912,534 million rupees from 857,497 million rupees in the first quarter of 2014, the Department of Census and Statistics said.
The sub sectors which reported higher growth rates compared to the first quarter of 2014 were tea, which grew by 7.1 percent, other food crops up by 4.9 percent, coconut which grew by 2.6 percent, and mining and quarrying, up by 11.3 percent.
The statement said high growth rates were also reported in manufacturing, by 6.6 percent, electricity, gas and water by 9.5 percent, construction by 4.1 percent, wholesale and retail trade by 11.9 percent, transport and communication by 4.0 percent, banking, insurance and real estate by 5.8 percent and government services by 6.9 percent.
The sub sectors of rubber, minor exports crops, and fishing contracted by 12.8 percent, 21.1 percent and 3.8 percent."The value added of rubber sub sector has reported a huge negative growth of 12.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015," a statement said. "The rubber production of the country has been continuously decreasing from first quarter of 2014."
The value added of the tea sub sector increased significantly by 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the drop of 2.3 percent reported in 2014 first quarter. New technologies used and the favorable weather conditions in tea growing areas increased the tea production in this quarter.
The industry sector which contributes 32.7 percent to the Gross Domestic Product grew 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the growth of 12.6 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
The manufacturing sub sector, which gives the highest contribution of 54.3 percent to the industry sector, grew by 6.6 percent in this quarter from the year before.
Factory industry sub sector grew by 7.0 percent in the first quarter of 2015 with textile wearing apparels and leather products growing 10.4 percent.
Courtesy: Daily News 17 June 2015