Sri Lanka's growth slows as exports weaken, with forecasts uncertain this year

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka's economic growth slowed to 6.4 per cent in 2012 from a scorching 8.2 per cent the previous year, data showed on Friday, hit by declining exports and weaker farm output.

The economy grew by 6.3 percent in the final financial quarter to December from a year earlier, the statistics department said, picking up from 4.8 per cent growth in the July-to-September quarter.

Sri Lanka's Treasury chief Punchi Banda Jayasundera has forecast the economy will pick up in the current 2013 financial year to Dec 31 and grow by seven to 7.5 per cent.

However the International Monetary Fund has said it believes Sri Lanka's recovery will be constrained by continued slow recovery in the country's main trading partners, particularly the United States and the European Union.