By Jude Fernando
Sri Lanka’s economy is not growing as fast as it’s potential would suggest. The final data on the country’s economic performance has not yet been collated, all forecasts point to a GDP growth rate of approximately 3.6% in 2018. While this is a definite improvement over the 3.1% growth rate witnessed in 2017 – the lowest since 2003 – it is clear that the nation has many obstacles to clear before economic growth can truly take off.
In examining the health of our economy, another area that requires greater attention is with respect to Non-Performing Loans in the banking sector. While the data is still coming in, it is undisputable that over the past year, tighter economic conditions have driven up NPLs across the board.
Read BMD November 2019 for more details…