The Government is adopting a three-month-ahead forecasting approach to respond to ongoing global uncertainty and energy price shocks, with the aim of maintaining its growth trajectory and export orientation, Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chathuranga Abeysinghe said in a video interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV.
“Basically we will have to keep a watch. So now as a Government what we are doing is forecasting three months ahead and trying to ensure that we won’t drop our ball on the growth trajectory that we are in and also our export orientation,” Abeysinghe said.
“We are also an energy-dependent country, so basically everything adjusts based on the energy prices. Within this year, energy prices have escalated three times, and it has impacted us with higher inflation and also pushed our cost of manufacturing up. So what we are doing now is, given the fiscal consolidation we have, the Government is continuing to maintain a fiscal buffer. So we were able to adjust to a certain level.”
Abeysinghe said the global crisis had led to a short-term slow down in Sri Lanka’s growth trajectory.
Sri Lanka’s real GDP grew by 4.2% in Q2 2026, marking a slowdown from the 5.1% growth recorded in Q1.
He also revealed the timeframe for 18 industrial zones to be established within one to two years, under the purview of the Ministry of Industry and the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka.
“It’ll take about another one or two years to get these economic zones built. My ministry is doing 11 and BOI is doing seven. So altogether there will be 18 new industrial zones,” he said.
Abeysinghe further noted that the Government expects to see collaboration between Sri Lankan and Indian corporates in the interim.
“Until that, I expect those large or midsize corporates which we spoke to look at possible partnerships with Sri Lankan entities because those Sri Lankan entities already have access to Europe, already have access to the US, and already in the global market, and to see how they can partner with technology or investment or market access.”