Sri Lanka's textile & garment exports continue uptrend

24 Sep '14

2 min read

Reflecting the impact of seasonal demand, textile and garment exports grew at a higher rate compared to other industrial products in July 2014, according to a press release on ‘External Sector Performance – July 2014’ issued by the Economics Research Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Continuing this year's uptrend, textile and apparel exports earned US$ 414.5 million for Sri Lanka in July 2014, showing an increase of 11.3 percent over $372.5 million exports made in the same month last year, the data showed.

Textiles and garments contributed 44 percent to the overall growth in Sri Lanka’s exports in July 2014.

On the other hand, the import of textile and textile articles by Sri Lanka registered a growth of 6.4 percent and was valued at $206.6 million in July 2014, as against imports of $194.2 million in the corresponding month last year.

In January-July 2014, Sri Lanka’s textile and garments exports fetched $2.826 billion, as against exports of $2.372 billion made during the corresponding period of last year. Meanwhile, imports of textiles and textile articles increased to $1.254 billion during the seven-month period, compared to imports worth $1. 160 billion made during the same period 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.

Last week, Sri Lanka and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on launching negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two nations.

While China is the world’s largest exporter of textiles and apparel, Sri Lanka is a manufacturing hub for lingerie, T-shirts and blouses. At present, Sri Lankan exports of textiles and apparel attract duty ranging from 14 percent to 25 percent in China, and if the free-trade deal fructifies, all textile and clothing items from Sri Lanka would be able to enter the Chinese market duty-free. (RKS)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India