Merchandise export earnings top US $ 1bn in September

Sri Lanka’s merchandize export earnings have surpassed the US $ 1 billion mark in September after July during this year, the Export Development Board (EDB) said.

As per the Customs statistics, earnings from merchandise exports recorded a positive growth of 5.16 percent in September 2020 to US$ 1,001.27 million compared to US $ 952.1 million recorded in September 2019.

This strong performance is consistent with the gradual lifting of restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic within the country and globally.

“I am extremely pleased to see US $1 billion of exports in September. I salute the entire export community, our resilient businesses and all employees in the export sector for this remarkable performance. It is the third time this year we have seen a year on year increase of merchandise exports.

However, we are concerned about the recent escalation of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka but hopeful of a swift recovery and a stable level of business continuity. Our businesses must continue to be resilient whilst facing the unknown and must have strong COVID-19 preventive measures in order to bring in the much-needed foreign currency for Sri Lanka,” EDB Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe said.

Meanwhile, total merchandize export earnings for January to September 2020 was US$ 7,401.48 million compared to US $ 8,872.57 million recorded in a similar period of the previous year – a decline of 16.58 percent. However, this shows an improved performance compared with the decline of 19.2 percent recorded in January to August 2020.

The revised export target of EDB for 2020 is US$ 13.39 billion. EDB expects US $ 9.57 billion from merchandise exports and US $ 3.82 billion from services exports.

During the period January to September 2020, earnings from exports were recorded at US$ 9.69 billion including the estimated services data for July to September—which is 72.4 percent of the revised export target.