Sri Lanka’s corporate bond market stands at roughly 1% of GDP — far too shallow to finance the private sector-led expansion the country would need to sustain about 7% annual growth to 2030, according to research presented in Colombo.

The finding comes from Financing Sri Lanka’s Inclusive Growth, a report by the Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) presented by Senior Director Priyank Tiwari at the Orange Economy Summit 2026 on Wednesday, the Daily FT reported.

Tiwari noted the 7% target is almost double the current growth rate, and sits alongside an ambition to double exports.

Where the money would have to come from

The arithmetic of the report is straightforward. “Public investment has been at a very steady 3% of GDP, so growth has to come from the private sector, especially when we are talking about high growth targets,” Tiwari said.

Sri Lanka has a strong and stable banking base that has been recovering solidly, he said, and that recovery should unlock more capital. “But the banking sector alone is not enough to fuel this growth.”

The gap is in long-term instruments. The CSE’s GSS+ framework has already drawn 12 bonds, yet the corporate bond market remains stuck at about 1% of GDP. The report argues for systematically deepening financial markets so more companies and institutions can raise capital through varied channels.

It identifies anchor value chains integral to growth, each with its own capital needs, and argues inclusion runs through them — via the jobs, communities and women they sustain.

Tiwari was careful not to describe the task as starting from scratch. “The starting point for us is not zero,” he said, citing the Central Bank’s sustainable finance roadmap and taxonomy, the CSE’s GSS+ framework and existing initiatives on financing for women entrepreneurs. The work now, he said, is to link those initiatives so the market develops in an integrated way.

The report draws on markets where the IIX model already operates. In Indonesia, a state-owned anchor issuer plus regulatory incentives moved the market to scale. Bangladesh saw its first issuance earlier this year and has folded Orange standards into its GSS guidelines.

The depth problem Tiwari describes echoes the case made days earlier by the SEC chairman, who urged that capital market development be written into Budget 2027.

Not reported

The filing does not give a target size for the corporate bond market, a timeline for reaching it, or the report’s estimate of how much additional investment the 7% path would require.