Sri Lanka’s per capita gross domestic product has surpassed USD 5,000 for the first time in the country’s history, according to the Central Bank’s Annual Economic Review for 2025.
GDP per capita reached USD 5,003 in 2025, up from USD 4,546 in 2024 — an increase of USD 457 in a single year. The 2025 figure exceeds the previous all-time high of USD 4,372 recorded in 2018, before the political and economic turmoil that culminated in the 2022 default.
The milestone marks a sharp contrast with 2022, the year Sri Lanka was declared economically bankrupt. Per capita GDP had plunged to USD 3,464 during the crisis as the rupee collapsed, inflation peaked above 70 percent and sovereign debt servicing was suspended.
The Central Bank formally presented the Annual Economic Review to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on April 20. The supporting Snapshot of the Sri Lankan Economy 2025 shows nominal GDP rising from USD 99.6 billion to USD 108.8 billion, with real GDP growth at 5 percent, the budget deficit narrowing to 2.3 percent of GDP, and government debt falling to 91.6 percent of GDP.
The USD 5,003 figure puts Sri Lanka back above the threshold the World Bank uses for upper-middle-income economies, a category it last met before the crisis. Economists caution the headline dollar figure is partly driven by rupee stability since the 2023 IMF programme — a 1 percent depreciation against the US dollar in 2026 to date, and currency valuation shifts could move the number either way in future readings.
The data arrives as Sri Lanka continues its fifth and sixth IMF Extended Fund Facility reviews and as debt restructuring under the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable framework progresses. The Central Bank said the per capita milestone reflects the cumulative effect of macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms pursued over the past three years.
