The Impact of COVID-19 on Economy of Sri Lanka

Abstract

COVID-19 which is also called new Corona Virus emerged in China quickly spread its worldwide, and is presently (2021) causing a large number of COVID-19 affected people and deaths making the world community more stressful. In such a context, this review studies how COVID-19 has impacted on the economy of Sri Lanka with special reference to GDP, Tourism and Export industry, Inflation, Unemployment and poverty. Because the virus spreads through human contact, government authorities have been temporarily shut down all areas of the country, including the economic system. Given the fact that several countries have been experimenting upon vaccinations to combat the COVID-19 virus, it moves on escalating with its new changed variants. This caused abrupt shifts in the global economic arena, and developing nations such as Sri Lanka were forced to intervene owing to the devastating effects of COVID-19. The tourism business, import and export industry, supply chain of the country, manufacturing, clothing, and other types of industries that rely on human contacts have been mostly affected in Sri Lanka as a result of the epidemic. The pandemic's increasing has made unemployment and inflation rates rise with a significant influence on Sri Lanka's poverty level as an indirect economic effect of COVID-19. The world has to continue with a new normal mode with COVID-19, the pandemic that cannot be foreseen its endpoint.COVID-19 and the huge impact of this pandemic have created the need for a major, resilient and sustainable strategy to meet unanticipated hazards and manage them successfully, mitigating their negative impacts and exploiting the windows opened in such situations in the market. In particular a plan on the recovery of the tourism and export industries has appeared to be essential for the long run of Sri Lanka's economy, since they are among the main markets of the country.