Manufacturing PMI indicates that manufacturing activities sustained the expansion on a month-on-month basis in December 2021, recording an index value of 58.1 mainly due to the expansion in New Orders and Production. All the sub-indices except Employment increased during the month.

The expansion in New Orders and Production was mainly driven by seasonal demand for the food & beverage manufacturing sector. New Orders and Production in manufacture of textile and wearing apparel sector also showed an improvement, yet at a slower pace. However, Employment sub-index declined in December compared to November 2021. The Stock of Purchases increased at a slower pace compared to the increases in New Orders and Production. Many respondents mentioned that although they wanted to build up stocks significantly ahead of the Chinese new year holidays, they were able to do it only to a certain extent due to import related issues.

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is perturbed over today’s announcement by S&P Global Ratings, at a time when the GOSL has diligently lined up adequate funds to repay its maturing foreign debt liabilities and its repeated assurances over the strong commitment to oblige its debt service payments, including the International Sovereign Bond (ISB) maturing on 18 January 2022.