SL’s Prosperity Index continues to improve CB Socio-Economic Infrastructure falls for second consecutive year

The Sri Lankan Prosperity Index (SLPI) and all its sub-indices except for the Socio-Economic Infrastructure continued to improve, with the main index gaining 61 index points to 0.746 points in 2016 from 0.685 points in the 2015.
The SLPI measures and compares the level of prosperity of the country and across its provinces.
According to Central Bank data the ‘Economy and Business Climate’ sub index gained 44 index points to reach 0.915 points in 2016 from 0.871 points in 2015.

The ‘Wellbeing of the People’ sub index gained 187 index points to reach 0.812 points in 2016 from 0.625 points in 2015.
However, the Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub index continued to fall for the second consecutive year with the index slipping 48 index points to 0.510 points in 2016 from 0.558 points in 2015.

The Central Bank highlighted that the Prosperity Index across all Provinces had improved except for the Sabaragamuwa Province, which posted a decline compared to last year.

In the provincial ‘Economy and Business Climate’ sub index the Central, Northern and Southern Provinces posted declines, while the remaining posted gains.

In the provincial ‘Wellbeing of the People’ sub index all the provinces posted sharp gains with Eastern and the Uva provinces too changing from a negative to a positive.
In the provinces, the Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub index North Central, Northern, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and Uva provinces posted declines, with the Sabaragamuwa Province falling to the negative parameter.

The positions of Provinces in Sri Lankan Prosperity Index remained unchanged with the Western Province holding the first position with the index improving 29 index points to 1.272 points, the Southern Province at second place with the index improving 20 index points to 0.455 points, the Central Province at third with the index gaining 80 index points to 0.450 points.

The North Central Province held the fourth position with 0.400 points, the North Western Province at the fifth position with 0.356 points, the Northern Province at sixth with 0.239 points, Sabaragamuwa at seventh with 0.153 points, Uva at eighth positions with 0.151 points and the Eastern Province in ninth position with 0.135 points.

In the provincial ‘Economy and Business Climate’ the Eastern Province gained two positions to rank sixth with 0.333 points, The Southern Province gained a notch to rank fifth with 0.388 points. However, the Central Province fell two positions to rank fourth with 0.490 points, Northern Province fell two positions to rank seventh with 0.301 points, Sabaragamuwa Province fell one notch to rank eight with 0.281 points. Western Province held the first position with 1.715 points, North Central held the third position with o.513 points, while the Uva province was at nineth with 0.181 points.

In the provincial, the Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub index the North Central and North Western Provinces shift positions to rank third and fourth with 0.404 points and 0.398 points respectively.

In the provincial, the Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub index the Eastern Province gained two positions to rank seventh, North Western Province gained two positions to rank fifth, the Southern Province gained one notch to rank fourth, while the Sabaragamuwa Province slipped three positions to rank ninth and the Uva Province slipped two positions to rank sixth.
“The improvements in employment rate, informal sector wages, industrial density and banking density have contributed towards the enhancement of the Economy and Business Climate sub-index”, the Central Bank said.

“With regard to the sub index of the Well-being of the People, high performance in availability of healthcare facilities, availability and quality of education, wealth of people and availability and usage of entertainment facilities were the key drivers,” the Bank said.
“However, the reduction observed in the Socio-Economic Infrastructure sub-index was led by reduced levels of pipe borne water quality, female participation in civic activities and available transport facilities”, it said.