Sri Lanka's garment exports fail to touch $5bn in 2016

08 May '17

2 min read

Once again, earnings from exports of textiles and garments fell short of $5 billion-mark for Sri Lanka. The island nation 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.

Textiles and apparel accounted for about 61.51 per cent of all industrial exports made by the South Asian nation in 2016, according to the data released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The decline in export value has continued in the month of January 2017, too. “Earnings from textiles and garments exports, which account for around 49 per cent of total export earnings, contracted by 8.2 per cent year-on-year to $426.3 million in January 2017, reflecting lower demand for garments from both traditional and non-traditional markets,” the Central Bank said in its 'External Sector Performance – January 2017' report.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's expenditure on imports of textiles and textile articles jumped 17.8 per cent to $2.705 billion in 2016, as against imports valued at $2.296 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.

In 2015, Sri Lanka’s export earnings from textiles and garments declined by 2.2 per cent year-on-year to $4.820 billion, compared to $4.929 billion in 2014. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India