Sri Lanka has highest regional per capita spending on personal grooming: Philips
23 September 2015 03:04 am
By Chandeepa Wettasinghe
Sri Lankans are the highest spenders on personal healthcare and grooming in the South Asian neighbourhood, according to a leading multinational in the global market.
“Because of the growing middle class, consumer electronics and appliances have a 33 percent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) and personal grooming has a 20 percent CAGR.
The South Asian region currently experience a moderate inflation—projected to increase by only 0.5 percent in 2016—due to the modest increase in the oil prices and essentially stable food prices.
The ADB has a revised GDP growth target for Sri Lanka at 6.3 percent for 2015 and 7.0 percent for 2016 as the Asian-focused development lender expects the private sector investments to rise after the diminished political uncertainties.
Sri Lanka’s private investments slowed due to the political uncertainties surrounding the January 8 presidential election and the unstable interim government led up to the Parliamentary elections on August 17.
Sri Lanka’s GDP growth slowed down to 4.4 percent in the first quarter and 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2015 against the corresponding quarters last year due to stalled construction sector growth.
“Offsetting this in part, robust spending in consumption-related sectors such as wholesale and retail trade sustained relatively strong growth,” the development lender wrote.
Sri Lanka’s growth appears to be now driven by domestic consumption, largely driven by cheap bank credit but the sustainability remains a question.
Meanwhile the ADB revised down the growth forecast for the South Asian region to 6.9 percent in 2015 from 7.2 percent and 7.3 percent in 2016 from 7.6 percent, mainly due to the modest growth acceleration in India—trimmed down to 7.4 percent in 2015 and 7.8 percent in 2016.
“The slower expansion in India is due to unexpectedly sluggish growth in the major industrial economies, flagging global trade, and parliamentary deadlock stalling action on structural reform,” the report stated.