Lanka’s foreign trade rises 21% despite crisis

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s exports grew 21 per cent during the first six months of the year and earned $5 billion for the crisis-hit country, according to official figures released on Friday.

Sri Lanka’s exports to India too witnessed an over 21 per cent increase assisted by increased exports of animal feed (19.26 per cent), Arecanuts (95.96 per cent) and textile (47.76 per cent) during January to June, the Export Development Board said.

India is placed third behind the US and UK as the biggest export market for Sri Lanka.

Exports to the United States, Sri Lanka’s single largest export destination, increased by 46.16 per cent to $323.65 million compared to the month of June 2021. The better performance was led by an increase in exports of apparel & textile (29.68 per cent) and coconut-based products (26.8 per cent) , according to a press release.

The exports to US recorded $1,687.73 million worth of exports in the period of January to June 2022 a significant year-on-year increase of 24.54 per cent in comparison to $1,355.14 million recorded in 2021, it said.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

The export industry is badly hit by the fuel scarcity caused by the forex crisis.

Having declared an international debt default in April the island nation is currently negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a possible bail out.

The Indian credit lines which came to assist with fuel and essential supplies as the crisis came to bite have now expired.