Lanka's growth picks up in Q1 despite tsunami
Reuters, Colombo
Sri Lanka's economy grew 4.8 percent in the year through the first quarter, the central bank said Thursday, expanding faster than in the fourth quarter of 2004 despite the impact of December's tsunami.The central bank reported in March that the economy grew 4.4 percent in the year through the fourth quarter of 2004. Sri Lanka's tourism sector was hard hit by the tsunami, with many hotels along the island's southern coast either destroyed or damaged, but the rise in gross domestic product was slightly above analyst expectations. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka did not provide comparable figures for the fourth quarter of 2004. But it said growth in the year through the first-quarter weakened from growth of 6.4 percent in the year through the first quarter of 2004. The hotels and restaurants sector contracted 39.6 percent, while fishing fell 77.5 percent due to tsunami, it said.
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