Analysing the Impact of COVID-19 on Sri Lanka Economy

Abstract

Launched in 2019 in Wuhan in china, the corona virus has now affected the entire world community. The World Health Organization has officially stated that it is currently a contagious disease in the world community(2020).Many of these countries have been affected and vaccination is now underway to control the virus. The same is true in Sri Lanka. The impact of COVID-19 on tourist, employment, household income, agriculture and small medium enterprises is revealed below. In 2019 the tourism industry contributed 4.3% to local GDP. (SLTDA , 2020) However, due to the epidemic, the closure of the country and the restrictions on tourism reduced the income of those engaged in tourism. They faced many problems. As a result, many jobs were lost. Closer of some businesses has resulted in job losses due to loss of business revenue. It also highlights the decline in family income due to the loss of small scale entrepreneurial activities and loss of trade. Although the country was initially closed, the sale and distribution of agricultural produce was problematic, but the government made it an essential service and distributed it throughout the country. Decreased export earnings, restrictions on imports, rising unemployment, trade deficits, declining foreign exchange, loss of household income, shortage of fertilizer for agriculture production, problems with bank loan repayments and all these have affected the Sri Lankan economy.