The Performance of the Services Sector in the Third Quarter of 2020 has recorded a significant growth of 2.1 percent compared to the same quarter in 2019.
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, this has been mostly supported by Telecommunication activities, IT programming consultancy and related activities and Financial Service activities for which growth rates of 16.5 per cent, 13.5 per cent and 12.3 per cent are reported respectively.
The total revenue of the Telecommunication activities has been estimated as Rs.48 billion for this quarter.
High engagement of the students in the online learning methods and the public and private sector employees working online due to the impact of COVID-19 has supported this growth, the Department said.
The Financial Service activities recorded Rs.202, 023 million value added at constant prices in this quarter over the value of Rs.179, 848 million recorded in the third quarter of 2019. The value of loans, advances and deposits of financial institutions recorded an increase by 13.8 percent and 18.5 percent respectively.
The Postal and courier activities recorded a 7.0 percent positive growth rate in this quarter in contrast to the recorded negative growth in the second quarter and the Human health activities recorded a 4.6 percent of growth in comparison to the same quarter in 2019. Private health services have expanded considerably during this quarter of 2020.
The activity of “Real estate” has contributed Rs.150, 147 million at constant (2010) price and shared 5.9 percent to the GDP at current price. The real value added of this activity in the third quarter of 2020 has increased by 3.1 percent compared to the third quarter of the previous year.
Due to the new normalcy following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wholesale and retail trade which contributes nearly 11 percent to the GDP, has reported a 2.9 percent positive growth rate in this quarter of 2020 when compared to the 2.1 percent of growth rate recorded in the third quarter of 2019.
The land transport activity also recorded a positive growth rate, while the air transport and water transport recorded negative growth in this quarter. Transport as a whole recorded 0.9 percent positive growth in the third quarter of 2020.
In addition, the Professional services, public administration and Educational Services also have recorded a positive growth rate in this quarter.
As revealed by the National Accounts Estimates for the third Quarter of 2020, the share to the GDP for overall service activities reported as 56.8 percent in the third quarter of 2020.