Sri Lanka grows by a blistering 7.7 percent in 2006

March 29, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka grew by a blistering 7.7 percent in 2006, which is the highest on record, the country's statistics office said Thursday. The Department of Census and Statistics said agriculture grew by 6.1 percent, industry by 8.4 percent and services by 7.8 percent.

"We are encouraged to see that all sectors performed well," Director General of Census and Statistics Suranjana Vidyaratne said.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers calculated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is due on Friday.

The Central Bank which uses a different data set with a higher weight on the lagging agriculture sector usually comes out with slightly lower numbers.

The Census Department said the services sector brought most of the growth contributing 59.3 percent with industry contributing 28.4 percent and agriculture 12.3 percent.

In 2005 the economy grew by 6.2 percent.

The GDP deflator, the broadest inflation measure in the economy was 11.3 percent in 2006 against 10.0 percent in 2005.

The Asian Development Bank said this week that the last years growth was fuelled 'expansionary' fiscal and monetary policies which is