Over the past eleven months, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has taken a number of monetary and regulatory policy measures to induce a reduction in market lending rates. These measures include the reduction of the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank by 100 basis points in two steps, the reduction of the Statutory Reserve Ratio (SRR) applicable on rupee deposit liabilities of Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) by 2.50 percentage points that released around Rs. 150 billion of additional liquidity to the financial market, and the imposition of caps on rupee deposit interest rates offered by licensed financial institutions that enabled them to reduce the cost of mobilising funds from the general public. 

“Sri Lanka Socio Economic Data – 2019”, the annually published data folder of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, is now available for public information. The current data folder is the 42nd volume of the series.

This easy-to-carry booklet contains information categorized under 14 topics, namely, Country Profile; Key Economic Indicators; Country Comparisons; Socio Economic Conditions; Human Resources; National Accounts; Agriculture; Industry; Economic and Social Infrastructure; Prices and Wages; External Trade and Tourism; External Finance; Government Finance; and Money Banking and Finance.

As the data folder presents a wide range of socio economic data of current interest in summary form, it will be a very useful reference material for policy makers, researchers, academics, professionals, students and the general public.