Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) with the agriculture sector growing 0.7 percent, industries 6.5 percent and services 7.5 percent. The GDP grew 7.6 percent in the first quarter of the previous year.

The three main pillars of the economy— agriculture, industries and services sectors—have shared the GDP at constant price (2002) by 10.9 percent, 32.7 percent and 56.3 percent, respectively in the first quarter of 2015.


"The three main pillars of the economy— agriculture, industries and services sectors—have shared the GDP at constant price (2002) by 10.9 percent, 32.7 percent and 56.3 percent, respectively in the first quarter of 2015"


The sub sectors that reported higher growth rates compared to the first quarter of 2014 are tea by 7.1 percent, other food crops by 4.9 percent, coconut by 2.6 percent, mining and quarrying by 11.3 percent, manufacturing by 6.6 percent, electricity, gas and water by 9.5 percent, construction by 4.1 percent, wholesale and retail trade by 11.9 percent, transport and communication by 4.0 percent, banking, insurance and real estate by 5.8 percent and government services by
6.9 percent.

In the meantime, the sub sectors of rubber, minor export crops and fishing showed negative growth rates as 12.8 percent, 21.1 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

The agriculture, livestock and forestry sub sector grew slightly by 1.3 percent and the fishing sub sector decreased by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to that of the first quarter of 2014.

The value-added tea sub sector has increased significantly by 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the drop of 2.3 percent reported in the 2014
first quarter.

The value-added rubber sub sector has reported a huge negative growth of 12.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015. In the first quarter of 2014, the growth rate of this sub sector reported a negative rate of 1.1 percent.

The industry sector, which gives a contribution of 32.7 percent to the GDP at national level, showed a percentage growth of 6.5 in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the growth of 12.6 percent shown at the first quarter of 2014.

The manufacturing sub sector, which gives the highest contribution of 54.3 percent to the industry sector, has grown by 6.6 percent in this quarter compared to the value of the first quarter in 2014. In this quarter, the mining and quarrying sub sector showed a growth of 11.3 percent compared to the value of the first quarter of 2014. The ‘processing industry’ sub sector under the manufacturing sector showed a growth of 3.8 percent in this quarter. The drop in the rubber production in this quarter is the key reason for this trivial growth rate experienced in the processing industry.


The factory industry sub sector has grown up by 7 percent in the first quarter of 2015. The major contributors of the factory industry - food beverages and tobacco and textile wearing apparels and leather products - showed growth rates of 9.6 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.

The electricity, gas and water sub sector showed a 9.5 percent growth in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of last year.

The construction sub sector indicates a 4.1 percent growth for the first quarter of 2015 compared to the growth of 22.5 percent in the same quarter of last year.
The service sector, which corresponds to the highest share of 56.3 percent to the GDP, has recorded a 7.5 percent increase in the first quarter of 2015.
In the 2014 first quarter, it showed a 6.5 percent increase in this sector.

The wholesale and retail trade sector, which gives the highest contribution of 40.6 to the service sector, recorded a relatively higher growth of 11.9 percent in the first quarter of 2015, when compared to the growth of 8.3 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2014.

The main three pillars of the wholesale and retail trade sector - export trade, import trade and domestic trade - have grown by 2.9 percent, 19.0 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively.

The transport and communication sub sector indicated a 4.0 percent growth in this quarter against the 7.3 percent growth in the reference period of the year 2014. The passenger and goods transportation, cargo handling and post and telecommunication sectors were grown up by 3.5 percent, 7.3 percent, and 6.8 percent, respectively.

During this quarter, registration of new buses and motor cars increased by 187.9 percent and 192.8 percent, respectively.