Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office, in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 14, 2022. REUTERS/Channa Kumara BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVESSri Lanka's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office, in Colombo, Sri Lanka December 14, 2022. REUTERS/Channa Kumara BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE. NO RESALES.
The state-run Census and Statistics Department says that agriculture shrank 8.7% in the third quarter and industries 21.2%, while services dropped 2.6%, from a year earlier. “Our projection was that it would be much worse -possibly a contraction of about 20% but now overall contraction for the year could be about 9%.”A multitude of factors including high inflation, power cuts,high interest rates, import shortages and fuel and fertiliser shortages impacted growth in the last quarter, the government says.