Sri Lankan textile & garment exports jump 20.5% in Q1

27 May '14

2 min read

The exports of textiles and garments from the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka jumped by 20.5 percent to US$ 1.264 billion in the first three months of 2014, compared to exports of $1.050 billion made during the same period last year, according to a press release on ‘External Sector Performance – March 2014’ issued by the Economics Research Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The export growth was even higher in March 2014. “As the leading driver of the growth in industrial exports, earnings from export of textiles and garments grew by 32.6 percent year-on-year to $457 million in March 2014, reflecting significant increases in exports to both traditional and non-traditional markets,” says the press release.

During the month, import expenditure on textile and textile articles also increased by 40 percent year-on-year to $182.1 million, in line with the continuous growth of textile and garment exports from Sri Lanka.

From January to March 2014, Sri Lankan textile and textile article imports stood at $528.2 million, registering an increase of 6.4 percent over imports of $496.2 million made in the corresponding period of last year.

In 2013, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textile and garment exports grew by 13 percent year-on-year to $4.508 billion, while its value of imports declined by 9.7 percent year-on-year to $2.045 billion.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set an ambitious target of achieving apparel export target of $10 billion by 2016.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India