The 'Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka – 2016' an annual publication of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, is now available for public access. The publication contains economic and social indicators of Sri Lanka in the areas of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), agriculture, industry, external trade and finance, government finance, banking and financial institutions, money and capital markets, prices and wages, labour force, transportation, education, health, telecommunication services, population, climate and selected information on economic and social indicators of other countries. In addition, information on living conditions, poverty and household characteristics in Sri Lanka from Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics also available in the publication.

The Manufacturing PMI decreased to 50.6 in July indicating a neutral performance in comparison to 55.1 in June 2016. The decline in July in comparison to June was mainly due to the decrease in New Orders and Production Indices. The month-on-month decline of the PMI and the sub-indices follows the significant increase observed in the month of June compared to May 2016. All sub-indices of PMI, apart from Employment and Stock of Purchases Indices, declined compared to the previous month. Overall data points to an expansion on the strength of Production and Stock of Purchases Indices while all the other sub-indices remained below the neutral 50.0 threshold. The expectations for activities indicated an improvement for the next three months.

The external sector performance in November 2017 was supported by continued inflows to the financial account of the Balance of Payments (BOP) mainly with higher foreign inflows to the government securities market, and marginally improved earnings from tourism. Although a double-digit growth in exports has been recorded, partly driven by the low base recorded in November 2016, the trade deficit expanded considerably during the month with higher imports. Meanwhile, workers’ remittances continued to decline, owing to adverse economic and geopolitical conditions prevailing in the Middle Eastern region. Accordingly, the BOP recorded an overall surplus of around US dollars 2.0 billion by end November 2017. Gross official reserves also increased to US dollars 7.3 billion (equivalent to 4.2 months of imports) by end November 2017 from US dollars 6.0 billion recorded at end 2016.

The Manufacturing Sector PMI recorded 59.1 in December which is a marginal increase of 0.3 index points compared to November 2017. This indicates that the Manufacturing activities expanded at a higher pace in December compared to November 2017. This was mainly driven by the increase in the Production sub-index. Further, Stock of Purchases and Employment sub-indices also expanded at a higher pace while New Orders sub-index expanded, albeit at a slower rate, during the month as compared to November 2017. Meanwhile, the Suppliers’ Delivery Time sub-index lengthened at a higher rate compared to previous month. Overall, all the sub-indices of PMI recorded values above the neutral 50.0 threshold signalling an overall expansion in December 2017. Moreover, The Expectation for activities indicates an improvement for the next three months.