Colombo, Sep 14 (IANS): Sri Lanka's economy grew by 6.8 percent in the second quarter of 2013, improving from a 6 percent growth in the first quarter of the year, the state-run Census and Statistics Department said in its latest report.

However, the agriculture sector, which has the highest employment in the economy, recorded a negative 1.1 percent growth in the second quarter.

Industry and services sectors recorded 10.1 percent and 6.6 percent growth respectively in the same period, the department said.

The tourism business registered the strongest growth at 21.1 percent followed by construction, which grew at 17.8 percent, with power generation coming in third at 16.2 percent.

Construction was mainly driven by government expenditure on large scale infrastructure development, which increased by 39.55 percent in the second quarter against the same period in 2012.

Mining, transport, banking and real estate were the other sectors that posted growth in the second quarter.

Inflation declined to 6.8 percent from 7.5 percent in the same period of 2012, the report added.

The export trade sector recorded a 3.8 percent increase in the second quarter, as against 2.3 percent in the same quarter of the previous year, the report noted.