. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food
processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages,
telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2003, plantation
crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while
textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average
annual rate of 5.5% in the early 1990s until a drought and a
deteriorating security situation lowered growth to 3.8% in 1996. The
economy rebounded in 1997-2000 with average growth of 5.3%, but 2001
saw the first contraction in the country's history, -1.4%, due to a
combination of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the
global slowdown, and continuing civil strife. Growth recovered to
4.0% in 2002 and 5.2% in 2003. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work
abroad, 90% in the Middle East. They send home about $1 billion a
year. The struggle by the Tamil Tigers of the north and east for a
largely independent homeland continues to cast a shadow over the
economy.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $73.7 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
5.5% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $3,700 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 19.9%
industry: 26.3%
services: 53.8% (2003)

Investment (gross fixed):
22.7% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line:
22% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.5%
highest 10%: 28% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
34.4 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
6.3% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
7.17 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 38%, industry 17%, services 45% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
8.4% (2003)

Budget:
revenues: $3.229 billion
expenditures: $4.526 billion, including capital expenditures of NA
(2003 est.)

Public debt:
105.1% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products:
rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber,
coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef

Industries:
rubber processing, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural
commodities; clothing, cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate:
5.8% (2003)

Electricity - production:
6.36 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
5.915 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)

Oil - production: