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| Tuesday, 1 March 2005 |
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Highest performance since 2000: Export earnings rise to US$ 5757 m in 2004 Export earnings last year increased by 12 per cent to US dollars 5,757 million compared with export earnings of US dollars 5,133 millions in 2003 recording the highest performance achieved since 2000, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said. "Industrial exports dominated by textiles and garments has been the major contributor to the overall growth. Export earnings from textiles and garments increased by 9 per cent to US dollars 2,809 million 2004 compared to the value of US dollars 2,575 million in 2003. Agricultural exports grew by 10 per cent in 2004 compared to 3 per cent growth in 2003, reflecting higher performance in all plantation crops. Exports of tea, rubber and coconut registered healthy growths of 8 per cent, 33 per cent and 22 per cent respectively in 2004," the Central Bank said. It also said that the export of rubber benefited from the supply shortage in the world market arising from the adverse weather conditions that prevailed in rubber producing countries and the growing demand for natural rubber in the international market. "The growth of the coconut exports was attributed to the higher exports of desiccated coconut, coir fibre mattress, coconut shell charcoal and fresh nuts. Exports of desiccated coconut grew by 38 per cent in 2004, benefiting from the increased demand from Middle Eastern countries," CBSL said. It said export earnings increased by 4 per cent to US dollars 513 million in December 2004 outperforming the decline of 0.1 per cent recorded in the corresponding month in 2003. Expenditure on imports also grew by 4 per cent to US dollars 782 million in December, 2004 which included petroleum imports of US dollars 102 million. This growth is low compared with the import growth of 20 per cent recorded in December 2003. The resulting trade deficit was US dollars 269 million in December 2004. The expenditure on imports grew by 20 per cent from US dollars 6,672 million to US dollars 7,973 million in 2004. Of this increase, 91 per cent accounted for intermediate and investment goods while consumer goods and other imports accounted for 9 per cent. The trade deficit in 2004 amounted to US dollars 2,216 million recording an increase of US dollars 677 million in 2004 compared to the deficit in 2003 mainly due to the increase in petroleum imports of US dollars 372 million. This deficit has been financed largely with the remittances, net earnings
in services and inflows in the financial and capital accounts. |
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