Crisis-hit Sri Lanka will return to growth this year, the World Bank said Tuesday, but around a quarter of the country’s citizens will remain living in poverty.
The Indian Ocean island nation was hammered by its worst-ever economic crisis in 2022, when it ran out of foreign exchange and protests over the resulting shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals forced its president to resign.
Sri Lanka’s economy shrank by 7.3 percent that year, followed by another contraction of 2.3 percent in 2023.
But in a new report the World Bank said Sri Lanka’s GDP was expected to stabilise this year, projecting growth of 2.2 percent.
Even so, the bank warned that the recovery would make little difference for many of those who were still suffering from the crisis.
More than 5.5 million Sri Lankans — or a quarter of the country’s population of the 22 million — were living below the poverty line of $3.65 a day, the World Bank said.
That compared to 11.3 percent in 2019, before the crisis hit.
