nd 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 15 years. The global slowdown will temper growth in 1999.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$48.1 billion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 4.7% (1998 est.)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$2,500 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 18%
industry: 31%
services: 51% (1997)

Population below poverty line: 35.3% (1990-91 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3.8%
highest 10%: 25.2% (1990)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.3% (1998)

Labor force: 6.2 million (1997)

Labor force--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--production: 5.05 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 4.95%
hydro: 95.05%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 5.05 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

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

Exports: $4.5 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports--commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, diamonds and
other gems, coconut products, rubber products, petroleum products
(1997)

Exports--partners: US 36%, UK 11%, Japan 6%, Germany 5%,
Belgium-Luxembourg 4% (1997)

Imports: $5.3 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Imports--commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles,
petroleum, building materials, sugar (1997)

Imports--partners: India 10%, Japan 9%, South Korea 8%, Hong Kong
7%, Taiwan 7% (1997)

Debt--external: $8.8 billion (1998)

Economic aid--recipient: $559.3 million (1995)

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

Exchange rates: