Vis-à-vis GDP growth of last year, Sri Lanka (SL) suffered the third lowest GDP growth last year among 196 economies with a figure of minus (-) 8.7 per cent. The two other economies which had lower growth figures that than that of Sri Lanka last year were Ukraine (-30.3 per cent of GDP) and Libya (-12.8 per cent of GDP), respectively, IMF statistics released yesterday showed.
The statistics found in a document called the ‘World Economic Outlook’ (WEO), saw IMF classifying 155 of the 196 economies captured in the study as ‘emerging markets and developing economies’ (EMDEs) to which category Sri Lanka belongs to and the balance 41 economies as ‘advanced economies.’ Ukraine and Libya too were EMDEs.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka with an annual inflation rate of 46.4 per cent last year saw only six other economies, namely, with Venezuela suffering from an inflationary rate of 200.9 per cent last year, Zimbabwe (193.4 per cent), Sudan (138.8 per cent), Turkiye (72.3 per cent), Argentina (72.4 per cent) and Suriname (52.5 per cent), having higher inflationary rates higher than that of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka suffered the seventh highest inflationary rate among the above 196 economic captured in the IMF study. The above six economies which had higher inflationary rates than that of Sri Lanka were also classified as EMDEs.
Meanwhile, IMF forecast that Sri Lanka’s inflationary rate will fall to 28.5 per cent this year (2023), before declining further to 8.7 per cent in the next (2024).
IMF data further forecast that Sri Lanka’s economy would contract by three per cent this year (2023), before marginally growing by 1.5 per cent in the next (2024). IMF also estimated that Sri Lanka suffered from a negative (-) current account (C/A) balance of 1.9 per cent of GDP last year (2022), whilst forecasting that it will contract to -1.6 of GDP this year (2023) and to -1.4 per cent in the next (2024)