Exports of other made-up textile articles fetched $54.5 million, registering an increase of 23.9 per cent, the central bank said in its report ‘External Sector Performance – May 2021’.

Textiles and garments exports accounted for 56.97 per cent of all industrial exports from Sri Lanka during the five-month period.

Imports of textiles and textile articles too rose by 32.0 per cent to $1.174 billion, while clothing and accessories imports fell 3.4 per cent to $90.3 million during January-May 2021.

In May 2021, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garment exports shot up by 69.2 per cent to $372.4 million, compared to exports of $220.1 million in the same month of 2020. Expenditure on textiles and textile articles soared 94.7 per cent year-on-year to $235.7 million, while clothing and accessories imports were up 88.7 per cent to $15.4 million.

In 2020, Sri Lanka's textiles and garment exports stood at $4.423 billion, registering a steep fall of 21 per cent compared to exports of $5.596 billion in the preceding year. Of this, clothing exports fetched $3.939 billion, a fall of 24.3 per cent over $5.205 billion in 2019. On the other hand, imports of textiles and textile articles decreased by 19.7 per cent to $2.335 billion.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)