wever, and continued to perform well in 1997 with
growth of 6%. Sustained economic growth, coupled with population
growth of only 1.1%, has pushed Sri Lanka from the ranks of the
poorest countries in the world up to the threshold of the middle
income countries. For the next round of reforms, the central bank of
Sri Lanka recommends that Colombo expand market mechanisms in
nonplantation agriculture, dismantle the government's monopoly on
wheat imports, and promote more competition in the financial sector. A
continuing cloud over the economy is the fighting between the
Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, which has cost 50,000 lives in the
past 14 years.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$72.1 billion (1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: 6% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$3,800 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 18.4%
industry: 18%
services: 63.6% (1996)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 9.6% (1997)

Labor force:
total: 6.2 million (1997)
by occupation: services 46%, agriculture 37%, industry 17% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate: 11% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $3 billion
expenditures: $4.2 billion, including capital expenditures of $1
billion (1997 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: 6.5% (1996 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 1.557 million kW (1997 est.)

Electricity-production: 4.86 billion kWh (1997 est.)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 220 kWh (1997 est.)

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

Exports:
total value: $4.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, diamonds and other gems,
rubber products, petroleum products (1995)
partners: US 34%, UK 9.5%, Japan 6.2%, Germany 5.8%,
Belgium-Luxembourg 5.3% (1996)

Imports:
total value: $5.4 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles, transport equipment,
petroleum, building materials, sugar, wheat (1996)
partners: India 10.4%, Japan 9.1%, South Korea 6.5%, Hong Kong 6.5%,
Taiwan 5.3% (1996)

Debt-external: $9.4 billion (1996)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $620 million (1996 est.)

Currency: 1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Sri Lankan rupees (SLRes) per US$1-61.479 (January
1998), 58.995 (1997),