a general view of the main business district as rain clouds gather above in colombo sri lanka november 17 2020 reutersdinuka liyanawatte colombo sept 15 reuters  sri lankas economy shrank 84 in the quarter through june from a year ago in one of the steepest declines seen in a threemonth period amid fertiliser and fuel shortages during the nations most severe financial crisis in more than seven decades a acute dollar shortage caused by economic mismanagement and the impact of the covid19 pandemic has left residents struggling to pay for essential imports including food fuel fertiliser and medicine the staterun census and statistics department said agriculture shrank 84 in the second quarter and industries by 10 while services dropped 22 compared to a year ago a shortage of chemical fertilizers during the quarter impacted agriculture production especially the countrys staple rice while restrictions imposed on fuel imports reduced manufacturing activity the government said in the first quarter the island of 22 million people saw its growth contract by 16 sri lankas central bank estimates the economy to contract by about 8 in 2022 “this is the second steepest contraction we have ever seen the last was when sri lanka posted negative growth of 16 in the q2 of 2020 due to covid19 pandemic lockdowns said dimantha mathew head of research at first capital we are expecting q3 and q4 growth to be negative as well and for overall growth to contract by 1012 inflation has continued to grow in the q3 and has hit private sector consumption which will likely spill over into the fourth quarter reporting by uditha jayasinghe editing by raissa kasolowsky and bernadette baum