Lloyd Yapa’s treatise on export competitiveness: A must reference book for Sri Lanka’s economic poli
Dwindling exports are Sri Lanka’s main constraint to prosperity
Monday, 11 December 2017
A pressing economic problem faced by the present Government, and any government that would come to power in the future, is the dwindling export earnings. They have been falling in relation to both the size of the economy, known as the Gross Domestic Product or GDP, and the total world exports.
Exports as a percentage of GDP stood at about a third of GDP at the turn of the new millennium. This ratio has now fallen to a level of a little over 12% by 2017. As a percent of global exports, Sri Lanka’s exports have been on a declining path continuously. The latest data relating to 2016 have stood at 0.05%, down from 0.08% in 2000.