Sri Lanka's per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had dropped by US$ 227 in 2019 and this marked the first such decline in 20 years, the new State Minister for Finance, Capital Market, and State Enterprise Reforms,  Ajith Nivard Cabraal stated.

He made this remark addressing the parliament today (27).

"According to the Central Bank reports, Sri Lanka's per capita Gross Domestic Product had dropped by $227 in 2019. This marked the first such decline in 20 years.  In stark contrast, the per capita GDP increased by $ 181  in 2006, by $ 191 in 2007, by $397 in 2008, by $43 in 2009, by $690 in 2010, by $381 in 2011, by $226 in 2012, by $258 in 2013 and by $210 in 2014. Sri Lanka's per capita GDP grew rapidly by $200 annually until the Yahapalanaya Government came into power in 2015," he stated.

Speaking further he also expressed the following:

"Under the proposed Vote on Account (VoA), a total of 981 billion has been allocated for recurrent expenditure while Rs. 334 billion has been separated for capital expenditure. This is a large sum of money. Therefore, some members of the Opposition think that we won’t be able to manage this.”

“We have managed the COVID- 19 situation really well. Despite this huge challenge we will continue to take the economy on a path of development.”

"From 2006 to 2014, Sri Lanka’s economic growth rate averaged around 6.4%, but once the Yahapalanaya' Government came into power in 2015, the economic growth slowed to an average of 3.7%  and in 2019 it went down to 2.3%.  After opening our economy, excluding one year, the lowest economic growth rate was  reported last year (2019) ."