ling Sri Lanka Freedom Party has a more
statist economic approach which seeks to reduce poverty by steering
investment to disadvantaged areas, developing small and medium
enterprises, promoting agriculture, and expanding the already
enormous civil service. The government has halted most
privatizations. Although suffering a brutal civil war that began in
1983, Sri Lanka saw GDP growth average 4.5% in the last ten years,
with a brief interruption during the global downturn in 2001. In
late December 2004, a major tsunami took about 31,000 lives, left
more than 6,300 missing and 443,000 displaced, and destroyed an
estimated $1.5 billion worth of property. Growth, partly spurred by
reconstruction, reached 5% in 2005 and more than 6% in 2006. Sri
Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food processing, textiles and
apparel, food and beverages, port contstruction, telecommunications,
and insurance and banking. In 2005, plantation crops made up only
about 15% of exports (compared with more than 90% in 1970), while
textiles and garments accounted for more than 60%. 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):
$93.33 billion (2006 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
$23.52 billion (2006 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
6.3% (2006 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
$4,600 (2006 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 17.3%
industry: 27.3%
services: 55.3% (2006 est.)

Labor force:
8.214 million (2006 est.)

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

Unemployment rate:
7.6% (2006 est.)

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):
12.1% (2006 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
28.2% of GDP (2006 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $4.762 billion
expenditures: $7.095 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
(2006 est.)

Public debt:
90.6% of GDP (2006 est.)

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