COLOMBO: Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his administration wanted to boost exports to 20 billion US dollars in three years and foreign direct investment to 5 billion US dollars. In 2016 Sri Lanka’s exports fell to 10.3 billion dollars from 10.5 billion US dollars amid weak external demand. In a policy statement presented to parliament he said per capita income would be raised to 5000 US dollars a year, from the current 3,843 US dollars. Foreign direct investments with loans fell to 1,079 million US dollars, down from 1,160 million in 2015, though investment which are not loans rose to 898 million dollars in 2016 from 680 million a year earlier.
Sri Lanka has discouraged foreign investment with an expropriation of firms in 2011 and a retrospective tax in 2015. Unlike export and FDI, which can be easily measured, gross domestic product calculations are estimates and the results may vary according to the methods and assumptions used. Percapita GDP has stagnated at around 3,800 US dollars since 2014 after the calculation methodology revised output upwards and a currency collapse in 2015 and 2016 also hit the country and an inflation catch up was delayed amid falling global commodity prices.