rce and accounting for one quarter of GDP. The plantation crops
of tea, rubber, and coconuts provide about one-third of export earnings. The
economy has been plagued by high rates of unemployment since the late 1970s.
Economic growth, which has been depressed by ethnic unrest, accelerated in
1991-92 as domestic conditions began to improve and conditions for foreign
investment brightened.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $7.75 billion (1992 est.)
National product real growth rate:
4.5% (1992 est.)
National product per capita:
$440 (1992 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
10% (1992)
Unemployment rate:
15% (1991 est.)
Budget:
revenues $2.0 billion; expenditures $3.7 billion, including capital
expenditures of $500 million (1992)
Exports:
$2.0 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities:
textiles and garments, teas, petroleum products, coconuts, rubber, other
agricultural products, gems and jewelry, marine products, graphite
partners:
US 27.4%, Germany, Japan, UK, Belgium, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China
Imports:
$3.1 billion (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities: food and beverages, textiles and textile materials, petroleum and petroleum
products, machinery and equipment
partners:
Japan, Iran, US 5.7%, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, UK
External debt:
$5.7 billion (1991 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate 7% (1991 est.); accounts for 20% of GDP
Electricity:
1,300,000 kW capacity; 3,600 million kWh produced, 200 kWh per capita (1992)
Industries:
processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural commodities;
cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco, clothing
Agriculture:
accounts for 26% of GDP and nearly half of labor force; most important
staple crop is paddy rice; other field crops - sugarcane, grains, pulses,
oilseeds, roots, spices; cash crops - tea, rubber, coconuts; animal products
- milk, eggs, hides, meat; not self-sufficient in rice production
Economic aid:
US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $1.0 billion; Western (non-US)
countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-89), $5.1 billion; OPEC
bilateral aid (1979-89), $169 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $369
million
Currency:
1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents
Exchange rates:
Sri Lankan rupees (SLRes) per US$1 - 46.342 (January 1993), 43.687 (1992),
41.372 (1991), 40.063 (1990), 36.047 (1989), 31.807 (1988)

*Sri Lanka, Economy