Purchasing Managers’ Indices indicate expansions in both Manufacturing and Services activities in August 2024.
Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index for Manufacturing (PMI – Manufacturing) recorded an index value of 55.5 in August 2024. This indicates an expansion in manufacturing activities,yet at a slower rate compared to the previous month. All the sub-indices, except for Employment, remained above the neutral threshold in August.
Taking into consideration the macro-economic developments, in particular the developments in domestic foreign exchange market conditions, Central Bank of Sri Lanka issued the "Repatriation of Export Proceeds into Sri Lanka Rules No. 01 of 2024" (Rules), which was published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 2391/02 dated 01.07.2024, in terms of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023, substantially relaxing the period applicable for exporters of goods to convert their export proceeds into Sri Lanka Rupees.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association (APAEA), co-hosted the CBSL-ADBI-APAEA Macroeconomics Conference for the fifth consecutive year on 06 September 2024. This year’s conference theme was ‘Inflation and Exchange Rate Dynamics in Asia and the Pacific.
Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100) decelerated sharply to 0.5% in August 2024 from 2.4% in July 2024. This deceleration in the headline inflation is broadly in line with the projections of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
‘Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka – 2024’, an annual release of socio-economic statistics of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, is now available for public access.
The external sector remained resilient with increased inflows from workers' remittances and tourist earnings despite an expansion in the trade deficit In July 2024.
Merchandise trade deficit widened in July 2024 (y-o-y), recording the highest monthly trade deficit thus far in 2024.
Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index for Construction (PMI – Construction) increased further in July 2024, recording an index value of 62.9. Most respondents highlighted a steady increase in construction work, spearheaded by projects funded by multilateral agencies.
Land Valuation Indicator (LVI) for Colombo District increased by 6.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis during the first half of 2024. All sub indicators of LVI, namely, Residential, Commercial and Industrial LVIs contributed to this increase recording annual increases of 8.5 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively. On a semi-annual basis, LVI and its sub indicators increased at a higher rate during first half of 2024 compared to the values recorded in second half of 2023. Further, it was observed that Industrial LVI increased at a slower pace compared to Commercial and Residential LVIs.
The Central Bank released its second Monetary Policy Report for 2024 in keeping with the requirements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023. The content of this Report is based on information that the Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank considered in formulating the monetary policy decision during the July 2024 review.
Purchasing Managers’ Indices indicate expansions in both Manufacturing and Services activities in July 2024.
Sri Lanka Purchasing Managers’ Index for Manufacturing (PMI – Manufacturing) recorded an index value of 59.5 in July 2024, indicating a continuous expansion in manufacturing activities. All sub-indices contributed positively to this improvement.
