The Western Province continued to account for the largest share of the country’s nominal GDP, according to Provincial Gross Domestic Product (PGDP) estimated by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) by dis-aggregating the annual nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures published by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), using provincial indicators.
However, in line with recent trends, its share in the GDP declined in 2017, contributing to the narrowing of regional disparity. Central and North Western provinces were the second and third highest contributors to the national GDP in nominal terms.
During 2017, increases in PGDP shares could be observed in Eastern, North Western and Uva provinces, while that of Western, Southern, North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces decreased. The shares of 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 % to the PGDP, except for Uva province where the contribution from the services sector was 37.8 %. 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. Provincial GDP of Uva province was largely driven by industry activities (44.2% ), for which mining and quarrying contributed significantly. In other provinces, the contributions from industry activities to PGDP varied from 16.2 to 31.5% .
In line with the trend observed in the national GDP, the contribution from agriculture activities to PGDP was the lowest in all the provinces ranging from 2.1 to 15.1%. During 2017, Eastern province recorded the highest share of 15.1% , which was led by the production of rice and marine fishing.
Key facts
Nominal GDP 2017 Rs. 13,317 bn
PGDP Share 2017
Highest: Western Province: Share declined narrowing regional disparity