Sri Lanka to cut 2015 fiscal deficit to 4.4pc of GDP vs 4.6pc

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's new government aims to cut its 2015 fiscal deficit to 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), better than a target of 4.6 percent set by the previous administration, a budget document showed on Thursday.

A cut of 177 billion rupees ($1.34 billion) in infrastructure spending is mainly responsible for the deficit reduction, it showed.

President Maithripala Sirisena's supplementary budget also cut public investment to 4.6 percent of the GDP, down from 6.2 percent earlier.

Sirisena won a Jan. 8 presidential poll, ending a decade of authoritarian rule by Mahinda Rajapaksa that the new government says was graft-ridden, mainly in major infrastructure projects. ($1=132.1000 Sri Lankan rupees)