Regional disparity narrows as Western ...

The provincial gross domestic product (PGDP) estimated by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) by disaggregating the annual nominal gross domestic product figures published by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), using provincial indicators, shows that the Western Province continued to account for the largest share of the country’s nominal GDP.

However, in line with the recent trends, its share in the GDP declined in 2017, contributing to narrowing of regional disparity. The Central and North Western Provinces were the second and third highest contributors to the national GDP in nominal terms.

During 2017, increases in the PGDP shares could be observed in the Eastern, North Western and Uva Provinces, while that of the Western, Southern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces decreased. The shares of the Central and Northern Provinces remain unchanged.

Analysis of the economic structures within the province shows that services activities play a dominant role in each province contributing more than 50 percent to PGDP, except for the Uva Province, where the contribution from the services sector was 37.8 percent.

The performance of the services activities in each province was largely backed by the developments in wholesale and retail trade together with the expansion in transportation activities.

The provincial GDP of the Uva Province was largely driven by industry activities (44.2 percent), for which mining and quarrying contributed significantly. In other provinces, the contributions from industry activities to PGDP varied from 16.2 to 31.5 percent.

In line with the trend observed in national GDP, contribution from agriculture activities to PGDP was the lowest in all the provinces ranging from 2.1 to 15.1 percent. During 2017, the Eastern Province recorded the highest share of 15.1 percent, which was led by production of rice and marine fishing.