The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Dr. Indrajith Koomaraswamy stated that the condition of the Sri Lankan Economy is in good shape and that the macroeconomic fundamentals are becoming stronger even after unexpected drought and flood affected the economy in the previous month.

He further stated that the economic growth of the country could reach the level of 5 percent by the end of the year. The governor made these remarks at the media briefing of the monthly monetary review for the month of May, held at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The Gross Domestic Production for the month of May was recorded as 3.8 percent containing 3.2 percent in Agriculture sector, 6.3 percent in the Industrial sector and 3.5 percent in the service sector. The export earnings were increased by 11.9 percent for two consecutive months with 795 million US dollars whereas the import expenditure increased by 9.8 percent.

Tourist arrival was declined by 2.5 percent in the month of May with an income of 209.1 million US dollars comparison to 4.8 percent of the tourist arrival from Jan- May 2017 with an income of 1.5 billion US dollars. The Central Bank further reported that the ongoing Qatar-gulf crisis could also pose a risk to workers remittance as Qatar is a key migrant employee destination of Sri Lanka. The Headline and Core inflation which showed an increasing trend in quarter one of 2017 has moderated in May reporting a percentage of 5.2 from 6.2 in April.