Economic growth has accelerated to 3.5% - Min. Mangala Samaraweera

Colombo (News1st) - Speaking in parliament, Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka's economic growth has accelerated to 3.5% of GDP in the first quarter of 2019 despite being best by droughts, floods, constitutional coups, and terror attacks. However, during the first 4 months of this year, inflation has risen gradually. Inflation in January stood at 5.1% and rose to 6.3% in April. Workers' remittances during the 1st quarter of 2019 declined by nearly 14%. The figure which stood at USD 2519.7 Mn during the first 4 months of 2018, dropped to USD 2170.9 Mn during the same period this year. According to the CBSL, the foreign reserves stood at USD 7.2MN by the end of April. However, media reports suggest that foreign reserves have further declined due to external commitments. Ceylon FT reported that’s foreign reserves in the three market days to the 17th of this month reduced by USD 296.31 million or Rs. 52,299 million. Meanwhile, according to data released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka a sharp fall in imports and weak export growth led to a significant narrowing of Sri Lanka’s trade gap in April 2019.