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Following several years of high credit growth, lending in Sri Lanka slowed in 2017 on the back of stricter monetary policies and higher interest rates. While credit growth is not forecast to reach the peak levels seen between 2015 and 2016, it is expected to rise moderately from 2018 to 2020 thanks to renewed GDP growth and better credit...

Improving economic growth, an increasingly sophisticated domestic market and regulatory reform are the main factors shaping the Sri Lankan banking sector. Stability has become a watchword following a period of rapid credit growth, as a flourishing private sector boosted the development of a previously underbanked market. Although the sector...

The government’s push to increase export receipts will benefit from the restoration of its Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade concessions status with the EU, which had been suspended for nearly seven years prior to mid-2017. Although data shows that EU imports from Sri Lanka did not significantly decline in the years following...

Flat export growth and a widening trade deficit have prompted Sri Lanka to launch a series of trade policy reforms aimed at boosting domestic competitiveness and export-oriented investment. A new trade strategy, announced in early 2017, is expected to shift the focus towards value-added manufacturing offerings and support programmes for...

Rising public debt and spending rationalisation has brought public-private partnership (PPP) deployment to the forefront of economic and trade policy reforms, with the Vision 2025 development strategy emphasising increased utilisation and diversification of PPPs. Shared development frameworks are thus expected to expand beyond the mainstay...