Sri Lankan textile exports up for 5th consecutive month

03 Feb '18

2 min read

For the fifth consecutive month, Sri Lanka’s export earnings from textiles and garments registered a positive growth and increased by 10.8 per cent year-on-year to $424.3 million in November 2017. Cumulative textile and garment exports for the first eleven months of 2017 were slightly up at 1.6 per cent, according to statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The 10.8 per cent increase in textiles and garment exports in November was due to “increased demand from the EU and the US and non-traditional markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and UAE,” the central bank said in its report ‘External Sector Performance – November 2017’.

“Following the restoration of the GSP+ facility, earnings from garment exports to the EU continued to expand, and in November 2017, it grew by 13.8 per cent (year-on-year), while garment exports to the USA increased by 11.9 per cent,” the report said.

The island nation’s cumulative textile and garment exports during January-November 2017 stood at $4.562 billion, around 1.6 per cent more than $4.490 billion exports made during the comparable period of last year, the central bank data showed.

During January-November 2017, clothing exports alone accounted for $4.291 billion, registering an increase of 1.4 per cent year-on-year.

Textiles and apparel constituted 58.90 per cent of earnings received from all industrial exports made by the South Asian nation during the eleven-month period, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s expenditure on imports of textiles and textile articles increased by 0.6 per cent to $2.491 billion in January-November 2017. Clothing and accessories imports were valued at $344.9 million, up 1.5 per cent.

According to a separate data released by Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) and Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association (SLAEA), Sri Lankan apparel exports fetched $4.818 billion in 2017 growing at 3.06 per cent year-on-year.

Sri Lanka earned $4.884 billion in textiles and apparel exports in 2016, registering a growth of mere 1.3 per cent year-on-year. Of this, clothing exports alone accounted for $4.602 billion, up 1 per cent over previous year’s earnings of $4.555 billion. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India