COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said on Friday that the country has recorded a primary surplus of 53 billion LKR ($167 million) up to May 2023.

Talking to journalists in Colombo, he said that this was accomplished by measures to increase revenue and strict expenditure controls, reports Xinhua news agency.

Revenues and grants grew by 38.1 per cent in the same period, compared to 2022, Siyambalapitiya said.

Meanwhile, the total tax revenue, at the same time, was 1,029 billion rupees and non-tax revenues were 91 billion LKR, Director General of the Fiscal Policy Department of the Finance Ministry Kapila Senanayake said.