Government approval falls to 50% as economic outlook dims: Verité

Public approval of the Government has dropped to 50% as confidence in Sri Lanka’s economic outlook weakens sharply, according to the latest ‘Mood of the Nation’ poll conducted by Verité Research.

The July 2026 survey found that government approval had fallen from 65% in February, which marked a post-election high.

At the same time, perceptions of the country’s economic outlook deteriorated significantly. Only 41.63% of respondents said economic conditions were “getting better”, down from 64% in the previous survey, while those who believed conditions were “getting worse” increased to 40.29% from around 15%.

The proportion of respondents who disapproved of the way the Government was performing also more than doubled to 31.40%, from around 15% previously.

More than half of those surveyed, or 55.59%, rated current economic conditions as “poor”, while only 38% considered them “good” or “excellent”.

This represented a reversal from the previous survey, in which a majority of respondents had viewed the country’s economic conditions positively.

The Economic Confidence Index, which combines net ratings on the economic outlook and current economic conditions, also slipped back into negative territory at minus eight.

The index, which ranges from minus 100 to plus 100, had stood at minus 39 in mid-2024 before moving into positive territory after February 2025.

Verité Research said the questions in the ‘Mood of the Nation’ poll differed from those used in some other recent national surveys. While the Social Indicators Survey measured satisfaction with specific political figures and groups, the ‘Mood of the Nation’ poll focused on public approval of the Government as a whole.

The latest survey was conducted from July 11 to 30 among 2,013 Sri Lankan adults selected through a nationally representative, multi-stage randomised sample covering separate households.

The survey had a maximum sampling error margin of ±2.21% for the full sample at a 95% confidence level, although Verité Research noted that implementation-related factors could further affect the margin of error.