Prosperity declined in Sri Lanka in 2019: CB

Sri Lanka Prosperity Index (SLPI) recorded 0.802 in 2019 compared to 0.811 in 2018, with marginal declines of the ‘Economy and Business Climate’ and ‘Socio-Economic Infrastructure’ sub-indices, Central Bank said last week.The ‘Wellbeing of the People’ sub-index has improved during the year, the Central Bank added. SLPI is a composite indicator compiled by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to measure the level of prosperity of the country. The index comprises three sub-indices, i.e. Economy and Business Climate, Wellbeing of the People and Socio-Economic Infrastructure, measured using 41 variables representing different aspects of prosperity.The Central Bank said the spillover effects of the Easter Sunday attack on tourism and related industries resulting in an increase in unemployment, and relatively high inflation due to adverse weather conditions towards the latter part of 2019, were the key reasons for the decline in the Economy and Business Climate sub-index.Reduced usage of public transportation due to concerns on security, aftermath of the Easter Sunday attack, mainly resulted in the decline in Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub-index.Improvements in the aspects of quality of education, health facilitation and wealth of people were the major contributors to the increase in the Wellbeing of the People sub-index.The Western province led with the highest value of provincial prosperity index, while Southern and Central provinces were ranked second and third respectively. In comparison to the previous year, the North Central province recorded the highest increase in the provincial prosperity index followed by the Eastern and Western provinces.Eastern, North Central, Northern and Uva provinces have recorded improvements in the sub-index with increases in informal sector wages and increased formal sector employment. The deterioration of the sub-index in other provinces was mainly caused by decreases in employment and high inflation levels.The sub-index improved in all provinces except for Southern, predominantly due to improvements in the aspects of health, education and wealth of people where vehicle ownership and access to supermarkets increased. Meanwhile, the slight deterioration of the sub-index in the Southern province was mainly due to reduced levels in the aspects of environment, entertainment and education.Southern and Western provinces recorded increases in the sub-index, with improvements to the road network, availability of electricity and enhanced crime-free environment. The decline of the sub-index of other provinces, with the highest decline recorded from Uva, was mainly due to reduced levels of transportation and availability of safe drinking water.