At a time when the private sector is saying that the economy is in a recession, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has released data showing improvement in economic activities. Making public the seasonally unadjusted national quarterly GDP, the NSO has stated that the economic growth rate in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2023/24) stood at 4 percent.

According to the NSO data, surge in the production of paddy and other agricultural produce, and value addition to the hotel sector due to good growth in tourism arrival are responsible for the current GDP growth in the second quarter. The NSO has said that the agriculture sector has grown by 3 percent in the second quarter of the current fiscal year while the mining sector grew by 9.4 percent. The construction sector grew by 2.2 percent, finance and insurance by 9.1 percent, and administration sector by 2.6 percent. However, wholesale and retail trade saw a decline of 1.2 percent in the first quarter of FY 2023/24, grew by 0.5 percent in the second quarter.