Sri Lanka avoided a recession in the December quarter, a trend that may not hold for long as the island nation faces depleting foreign currency reserves and a spillover from the war in Ukraine dims recovery prospects.
Sri Lanka’s economy grew at a slower-than-expected 1.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of the 2021 financial year, taking its full year growth to 3.7 per cent, data from the government’s statistics department showed on Tuesday.
Lower than expected fourth quarter results indicate Sri Lanka struggled to emerge from its Delta-variant coronavirus lockdown in the third quarter of 2021, analysts said, pointing out that