Sri Lanka's garment and textile exports increase

As per statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka's earnings from textiles and garments exports increased by 21.9 percent year on year to $2.941 billion in the first seven months of 2021. Textile exports have increased 39.1% to $184.2 million, while garment exports increased 25.5% to $2.683 billion.

Export markets of other manufactured textile articles totaled $74.4 million, a 47.7 percent reduce year on year, according to the central bank's report 'External Sector Performance – July 2021.'

According to the report, textile and garment exports accounted for 56.17 percent of all industrial exports from Sri Lanka during the seven-month period.

Imports of textiles and textile articles increased by 34.8 percent to $1.702 billion, while imports of clothing and accessories decreased by 3.4 percent to $120.2 million from January to July 2021.

Sri Lanka's textile and garment export earnings fell 3.2% to $454.1 million in July 2021, compared to $469.2 million in the same month in 2020. Textile and textile section spending increased by 27.4% year on year to $251.2 million, while clothing and accessories imports increased by 10.8% to $14.9 million.

Sri Lanka's textile and garment exports stood at $4.423 billion in 2020, a 21% decrease from the previous year's exports of $5.596 billion. Clothing exports accounted for $3.939 billion, a decrease of 24.3% from $5.205 billion in 2019. Imports of textiles and textile articles, on either hand, fell 19.7 percent to $2.335 billion.