 "Hit by Covid-19, Sri Lanka's economy contracts 1.6% in first quarter")
(Reuters) - Sri Lanka's economy contracted by 1.6% in the first quarter of 2020, government data showed, as lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic battered a country still recovering from last year's Easter Sunday bomb attacks.
The economy failed to function at peak level due to lockdowns that began at the end of the Jan-March quarter, while the impact of the bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people last year continued to trouble several sectors, the government said in a press release https://bsmedia.business-standard.comwww.statistics.gov.lk/national_accounts/dcsna_r2/reports/2020.08.04/press_note_english.pdf.
(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones)