Exports increased by 6 per cent

Chamikara Weerasinghe

The country's exports have increased by six per cent compared to last financial year, the Central Bank announced yesterday.

The growth is mainly due to increased apparel and traditional agricultural exports, CB's Economic Research Department said. They further said the situation that existed owing to contraction of exports in previous months has been restored in October in spite of a brewing global economy.

According to Central Bank statistics on exports, the country's export earnings for October, 2008 are US dollars 661.2 million.

The export income for October, 2007 is US dollars 624.2 million. Tea exports have also increased by 13. 6 per cent, sources said.

The country has earned US dollars 6810 .9 million from exports from January to October 2008 which is an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.