Sri Lanka rebases GDP to year 2015 to reflect emerging economic activities 

• New base captures Port City reclamation and IT services which grew in size and significance

The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) yesterday said they have changed the base year of measuring the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 2015 from the hitherto used base year of 2010. 

According to DCS officials, the exercise is part of a periodic rebasing that must be carried out according to international best practices and also to capture the new and emerging economic activities in the recent past. 
They also said they consider 2015 as a fairly stable year of economic performance, which can be used to rebase past economic output numbers as well as to measure the output going forward. 

The Cabinet also gave the nod this week to publish the revised quarterly and annual GDP numbers based on the new base year. 

The GDP in the first quarter of 2022 will also be measured using 2015 as the base year. 
According to DCS officials, the new base year will capture new and outsized economic activities like Port City’s land reclamation that took place and the emerging economic trends such as the digital economic activities which gained pace in the 2015 aftermath before the pandemic added a flywheel from 2020 onwards. 

“We have attempted to recognise the real economic contribution from the expansive information technology and related digital services in the economy,” a top DCS official said.

Further, the DCS has incorporated new data series and new and updated methodologies of measuring economic activities under the new base. 

However, Sri Lanka is expected to record a contraction in its GDP in 2022 as the Central Bank repeatedly highlighted the downside risks to the economy and the enormous difficulty in achieving even the trimmed down projection of 1 percent particularly since the March crash landing. The base year has been revised several times in history, in 1958, 1963,1975, 1990, 2002 and in 2010. The national accounts are published with a 75-day lag and the 2022 first quarter GDP is due by mid June.