Sri Lanka's economy is back where the crisis began — and climbing

Four years after an economic collapse that emptied fuel stations and pharmacy shelves, Sri Lanka has clawed its way back: the World Bank's October update finds output has returned to 2018, pre-crisis levels, with the economy growing 4.4% this year on twelve consecutive quarters of expansion — faster than earlier forecasts. The Bank's country manager called it a beginning, not an end: household incomes still lag, and the next chapter has to be jobs. But a nation that hit the floor is standing again, and the momentum is real.