The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Sri Lanka’s Economy

Abstract

The on going COVID-19 pandemic that originated in the city of Wuhan, China, has been caused a huge damage to the world population and the global economy. In Sri Lanka, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on 27th January 2020 which was a Chinese travel individual. The government of Sri Lanka introduced various sequential measures to improve social distancing, reduce the public gathering and introducing travel bans to international arrivals. The report was prepared based on published data available on or before 23rd August, 2021. This report presents a snapshot of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic across Sri Lankan economy with focus on the key economic income earning sectors such as export of apparels and textile, tourism, food and agriculture, small and medium scale enterprises, construction, transport while reducing poverty, inflation rate and unemployment rate. As a result of job losses unemployment rate was drastically increased while increasing the poverty line of Sri Lanka. Economically, Sri Lanka is classed as a middle-income county. Since last year July, the World Bank has downgraded Sri Lanka to a lower middle-income country due to a drop in per capita income for 2020. COVID-19 outbreak has created many negative impacts on key income earning sectors. Increase in the demand for alternative tourism including eco-tourism, give low interest working capital loans to small-scale businesses and small and medium scale businesses. The outbreak of critical disease of COVID-19 cannot be predicted or controlled yet due to rapid growth. However, community lifestyle significantly changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering all the factors government should take necessary actions to rebuild the nation and economy while controlling the spread of COVID-19 virus. As Sri Lankans we all should behave as responsible human beings to over come this hardest situation.