Sri Lanka's textile exports up 5.2% in Jan-Oct '18

26 Dec '18

2 min read

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Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garments exports increased by 5.2 per cent year-on-year to $4.354 billion in the first ten months of 2018, according to the statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Imports of textiles and textile articles were up 5.8 per cent to $2.371 billion, while clothing and accessories imports fell 18.5 per cent to $260.1 million during the ten-month period.

In October 2018, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garment exports remained positive and the island nation earned $426.6 million from textiles and clothing exports, registering an increase of 0.9 per cent over exports of $422.6 million during the same month of 2017. “Export earnings from textiles and garments increased marginally in October 2018 due to higher earnings from textile exports despite the slight decline registered in garment exports,” the central bank said in its report ‘External Sector Performance – October 2018’.

“The reduced earnings from garment exports was mainly driven by the lower demand from the USA, despite an increase in exports to the EU market and non-traditional markets such as India, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong,” the report added.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s expenditure on textiles and textile articles increased in October 2018 by 15.5 per cent year-on-year to $279.7 million, whereas clothing and accessories imports were down 34.2 per cent to $22.8 million. “Import expenditure on textiles and textile articles increased mainly due to higher imports of fabric and yarn,” the central bank said.

In 2017, Sri Lanka earned $5.031 billion in textiles and apparel exports, registering a growth of 3 per cent year-on-year. Of this, clothing exports alone accounted for $4.739 billion. On the other hand, imports increased by 0.7 per cent to $2.724 billion. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India