Macroeconomic Impact of COVID 19 and Policy Choices for Sri Lanka

PF Occasional Paper by Senior Visiting Fellow of Pathfinder Foundation & Senior Research Associate of Overseas Development Institute UK, Ganesh Wignaraja on macro impact of covid-19 in Sri Lanka including 3 policies to emerge stronger, more inclusive and greener.

Three key policies:

1. Fiscal stimulus targeted towards green investment / gender-sensitive expenditure produces higher growth than other scenarios
2. Concluding deep bilateral FTA with India + goods BIMSTEC FTA brings larger export gains to Sri Lanka than a goods FTA China
3. The Colombo Port City SEZ can be a game changer for modern services development provided Sri Lanka implements a competitive SEZ framework and conducive national policies to attract FDI.