Sri Lanka's textile & garment exports up 4% in Jan-May '18

25 Jul '18

2 min read

Courtesy: Artem Bali from Pexels

Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garments exports increased by 4 per cent year-on-year to $2.065 billion in the first five months of 2018, according to the statistics recently released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Imports of textiles and textile articles were up 3.8 per cent to $1.129 billion, while clothing and accessories imports fell 19.5 per cent to $140.5 million during the five-month period.

In May 2018, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garment exports rebounded after previous month’s decline. The island nation earned $398.3 million from textiles and clothing exports, registering a rise of 10.9 per cent over exports of $359.2 million during the same month of 2017. “Earnings from textiles and garment exports increased significantly due to the higher demand from the EU and the US while exports to non-traditional markets also increased moderately,” the central bank said in its report ‘External Sector Performance – May 2018’.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s expenditure on textiles and textile articles increased in May 2018, “reflecting higher expenses on all sub categories particularly fabric imports”. Textiles and textile articles imports increased 8.6 per cent to $246.8 million during the month, whereas clothing and accessories imports fell 21.4 per cent to $24.3 million.

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