SL economy to depreciate by 5% - World Bank

Colombo (News 1st) - An event was held to launch the regional flagship report of the World Bank, titled South Asia's Hot-spots. The new report focuses on analysing the impact of climate change on living standards. The event was attended by the principle author of the report, Muthukumara Mani. The lead economist at the World Bank, Muthukumara Mani talking at the event stated that it was found out that for almost all the south asian countries they studied, the countries are already beyond their tipping point, which suggests that any further increase in temperature, with other factors as constants would only lead to a decline in living standards. He stated that in srilanka, the living standards will go down by about 5% and in the worst case scenario, it will be a decline of 7% by 2050. He then stated that if the decline is translated in terms of GDP, under the worst case scenario, GDP will decline by 7.7%. Economist Muthukumara elaborated stating that if the Sri Lankan government could focus on specific locations such as Jaffna, Puttalam, Mannar, as they are emerging as most impacted districts, with an expected decline in living standards by almost 10%. Investments should be made to improve education by 30% and the impact from the climate would negate from 7% to only 2.6%.