CATEGORY: OBG CEO Surveys
As Sri Lanka sharpens its focus on achieving $20bn in export earnings by 2020, executives interviewed for OBG’s most recent Business Barometer: Sri Lanka CEO Survey have resoundingly voted for textiles and apparel as the export segment likely to experience the highest rate of growth in overseas shipments in 2018.
Following a difficult climatic year that saw severe floods and drought weigh on growth, C-suite executives surveyed in OBG’s Business Barometer: Sri Lanka CEO Survey appear to be generally optimistic that clearer skies are ahead. Three-quarters of CEOs had positive or very positive expectations about local business conditions for 2018, with 56% forecasting GDP expansion to range 4-5%, which is broadly in line with the central bank’s estimates of 5-5.5%. However, if Sri Lanka is to reach the Vision 2025 target of becoming a knowledge-based economy, the ongoing “brain drain” will have to be addressed, with CEOs naming a variety of skills in need.
As I write this in January 2018 and look back to a year ago, the economies of the GCC were hoping that oil prices had bottomed out and that the next 12 months would herald greater market stability.