UN notes SL economic growth below potential

Easwaran Rutnam

A United Nations (UN) report has noted that Sri Lanka’s economic growth is projected to remain below its potential in the near term.

The United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2019 report released in Bangkok last week noted that Sri Lanka’s economy is recovering from the slowdown in 2017, but much more slowly than anticipated, amid weak business sentiment, feeble investment demand, and political turbulence.

The report notes that the regional outlook for South Asia is moderately favourable.

Regional GDP is expected to expand by 5.4% in 2019 and 5.9% in 2020, after an estimated expansion of 5.6 in 2018. Growth is expected to be supported by private consumption and, in some cases, investment demand, even as monetary policy stances tighten in some economies. But beyond these aggregate trends, the economic outlook is highly divergent across countries.