Sri Lanka’s economy grew 5% in 2024: CBSL

The Sri Lankan economy recorded a strong turnaround registering overall growth of 5% for 2024 amid renewed macroeconomic stability, says the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).

Meanwhile, the country’s economy grew 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Census and Statistics Department said in a statement.

The International Monetary Fund had forecast Sri Lanka’s economy would grow by 4.5% in 2024.

Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector grew 8.3% in 2024 from a year earlier, industrial output expanded by 25.5%, and services grew by 57.5%.

Struck by a severe dollar shortfall, the economy went into freefall in 2022, contracting 7.3% as it grappled with soaring inflation, a sharply weaker currency and a historic foreign debt default.

The economy shrank 2.3% in 2023.

But it made a stronger-than-expected recovery last year as measures implemented under a $2.9 billion four-year bailout from the IMF, secured in March 2023, bore fruit.