State revenue accounted for 11.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 – State Minister for Finance

During a press conference at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) themed ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country,’ held today (01) the State Minister for Finance, Shehan Semasinghe disclosed that  state revenue accounted for 11.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023, with projections indicating an anticipated increase to 15% by the year 2026.

Providing insights into the economic landscape, he said  that the country is poised to achieve a 1.7% economic growth in the third quarter of 2023 and added that the overall economic growth for the year 2023 was anticipated to be approximately -3%, a marked improvement from the -11% recorded in 2022. The balance of the primary account, which was negative at Rs. 895 billion in 2022, has now turned positive, standing at Rs. 333 billion as of November 2023.

Furthermore, State Minister Semasinghe informed that, with the receipt of the second tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), foreign reserves projected to surpass US dollars 4 billion. This includes contributions of US dollars 337 million from the IMF, US dollars 220 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and US dollars 250 million from the World Bank (WB).