Sri Lanka's gross capital formation (annual % growth) was 9.78% in 2025, the latest year in the World Bank's World Development Indicators. That is up 10.41 percentage points from -0.63% in 2020.
Key figures
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 9.78% | 2025 |
| Five years earlier | -0.63% | 2020 |
| Highest | 82.37% | 1974 |
| Lowest | -40.58% | 2022 |
| Average since 2016 | -0.09% | 2016–2025 |
| First recorded | 22% | 1961 |
Over five years it is up 10.41 percentage points from -0.63% in 2020. Since 1961 it is down 12.22 percentage points from 22% in 1961. The World Bank has no value for 6 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.
What the numbers say
In 2025, Sri Lanka's gross capital formation (annual % growth) fell 7.88 percentage points on 2024 (from 17.67% to 9.78%).
Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1988 to 2024), the average change was +0.3 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 15.75 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.5 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.
On record, the biggest yearly rise was 112.3 percentage points in 1974 and the biggest yearly fall was 97.54 percentage points in 1975. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.
From 2016 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 1% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.
Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.
How it compares
In 2025, Sri Lanka had the 32nd highest value of the 123 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | 9.78% | 2025 |
| World | 2.87% | 2025 |
| South Asia | 5.76% | 2025 |
| Upper middle income | 2.14% | 2025 |
Closest to Sri Lanka in the 2025 ranking
- Rwanda — 28th of 123: 10.45%
- Switzerland — 29th of 123: 10.26%
- Cameroon — 30th of 123: 10.09%
- Tanzania — 32nd of 123: 9.51%
- Chad — 33rd of 123: 9.33%
- Madagascar — 34th of 123: 9.32%
What this measures
Gross capital formation includes acquisitions less disposals of produced assets for purposes of fixed capital formation, inventories or valuables. This indicator denotes the percentage change over each previous year of the constant price (base year 2015) series in United States dollars.
Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.
All 59 values
| Year | Gross capital formation (annual % growth) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 9.78 |
| 2024 | 17.67 |
| 2023 | -6.56 |
| 2022 | -40.58 |
| 2021 | 6.39 |
| 2020 | -0.6292 |
| 2019 | -11.93 |
| 2018 | -5.44 |
| 2017 | 18.34 |
| 2016 | 12.02 |
| 2015 |
Gross capital formation (annual % growth) in nearby economies
- Bangladesh — -2.45% (2025)
- Bhutan — 5.33% (2024)
- India — 6.47% (2025)
- Maldives — 20.4% (2024)
- Nepal — 3.04% (2025)
More economic policy & debt data for Sri Lanka
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$) — US$9.1 billion (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current LCU) — 2.74 trillion (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (constant 2015 US$) — US$6.84 billion (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (constant LCU) — 929.67 billion (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (% of GDP) — 8.36% (2025)
- Manufacturing, value added (current US$) — US$18.63 billion (2025)
- Manufacturing, value added (current LCU) — 5.61 trillion (2025)
- Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP) — 17.12% (2025)
- Industry, including construction, value added (current US$)
Reading data like this
Questions people ask
- What is Sri Lanka's gross capital formation (annual % growth)?
- 9.78% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).
- How has it changed since 1961?
- It is down 12.22 percentage points from 22% in 1961. The highest value was 82.37% in 1974 and the lowest -40.58% in 2022.
- How does Sri Lanka rank?
- 32nd highest of 123 economies with data for 2025.
- Is the latest change in gross capital formation (annual % growth) unusual for Sri Lanka?
- In 2025, Sri Lanka's gross capital formation (annual % growth) fell 7.88 percentage points on 2024 (from 17.67% to 9.78%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1988 to 2024), the average change was +0.3 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 15.75 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.5 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.
Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NE.GDI.TOTL.KD.ZG, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Country official statistics, National Statistical Organizations and/or Central Banks; National Accounts data files, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.
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