Government approval moderates as economic outlook weakens: Mood of the Nation poll
In the latest July 2026 round of the Gallup-style ‘Mood of the Nation’ poll conducted by Verité Research, the government’s approval rating moderated to 50%, following a post-election high of 65% in the previous February 2026 round. The polling partner was Vanguard Survey (Pvt) Ltd.
Perceptions of the economic outlook reduced sharply. Those who think the economy is “getting better” declined to 42% from 64% in the previous round. Those who said it was “getting worse” increased to 40%, and those who said they disapproved of government increased to 31%, both from around 15% in the previous round.
Over half, 56%, said that the current economic conditions in Sri Lanka are “poor”. Only 38% said conditions are “good” or “excellent” --in contrast to the previous round where a majority said so.
The net rating on the economic outlook and the state of the economy are averaged to create an Economic Confidence Index ranging from minus 100 to +100. This was minus 39 in mid-2024 but came into positive territory after February 2025 and declined to minus 8 in this round of polling.
The precise phrasing of questions and response percentages to two decimal points on this “Mood of the Nation” survey are detailed below. They add up to less than 100 because some percentage said they did not know or refused to answer.
Government Rating | “Approve” 49.83% | “Disapprove” 31.40% | In response to the question, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way the current government is working?”
Economic Outlook | “Getting Better” 41.63% | “Getting Worse” 40.29% | In response to the question, “Do you think that the economic conditions in the country as a whole are getting better or getting worse?”
State of the Economy | “Good” or “Excellent” 38.00% | “Poor” 55.59% | In response to the question, “Rate the economic conditions in the country today as either excellent, good or poor”.
These questions were different from those in other recent national surveys published. For instance, the “Social Indicators Survey” said it asked about satisfaction with specific political figures or groups, and reported satisfaction with the president and prime minister as 76% and 68%, and satisfaction with ‘MPs of the ruling party’ as 45%. The Mood of the Nation survey, in contrast, asked about approval of government as a whole, and got a result of 50%, which is close to the response on ruling party MPs in the “Social Indicators Survey”.
The regularly conducted Mood of the Nation poll is part of the Sentiment Survey instrument of Verité Research, and enriches its regular macro-political briefings. The instrument allows other organisations to add survey questions to check the sentiments of Sri Lankans. More details on the polling results are available to clients.
The latest poll was administered between July 11 and 30 based on a nationally representative, multi-stage, randomised sample of 2,013 Sri Lankan adults from separate households. This survey was designed to have a maximum sampling error margin of ±2.21% for the full sample at a 95% confidence level. Error margins can be further affected by lapses that could arise in the implementation process.
