Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on Wednesday outlined the country’s economic trajectory, saying the recovery from the 2022-2023 crisis has been gradual and that income gains have not yet reached all segments of the population.
The Governor said the economy contracted around 7 percent in 2022 and a further 2 percent in 2023, with high inflation eroding purchasing power. Growth has since resumed at around 5 percent for two consecutive years after 2023, with the cost of living remaining relatively stable over the past three years.
The overall size of the economy in gross domestic product terms has now reached approximately USD 109 billion, Dr. Weerasinghe said, indicating a return towards pre-crisis levels. The previously reported GDP-per-capita milestone of USD 5,000 underpins this aggregate figure.
Despite the headline recovery, the Governor cautioned that benefits have not been evenly distributed. Income growth has varied across society, with some segments seeing stronger gains while others continue to struggle to catch up. He pointed to continued reliance on the Aswesuma welfare programme and a significant number of people still below the poverty line as indicators of the uneven recovery.
Improvements in purchasing power take time to align with household expenditure patterns, Dr. Weerasinghe noted, describing the lag as a common feature of post-crisis transitions.
The remarks land in the same week the Governor unveiled a new fraud-prevention framework following the Treasury cyber theft and the NDB bank fraud disclosure. The income-inequality framing also tracks alongside Finance Ministry data on Aswesuma’s continued 689,931 beneficiary base.
Reporting by Zulfick Farzan for NewsFirst (May 13).
