Increase in imports, exports in December

Exports and imports reported positive growth in December 2009, on a year-on-year basis.

Export earnings grew by 6.4 per cent in December 2009 to US dollars 723 million fuelled by the agricultural exports, which grew by 40.2 percent led by the high prices garnered by tea and rubber in the international commodity markets.

Expenditure on imports grew marginally by 0.5 per cent in December 2009 to US dollars 1,054 million.

Imports of intermediate goods and consumer goods were the key drivers of this growth, the Central Bank said. Cumulatively, however, year-on-year earnings from exports and expenditure on imports declined by 12.7 percent and 29.4 per cent, respectively, in 2009.

The trade deficit contracted for the 12th consecutive month in December 2009 by 10.4 percent to US dollars 330 million.

Accordingly, the cumulative trade deficit decreased by 52.5 percent to US dollars 2,798.6 million in 2009 from US dollars 5,897.4 million in the corresponding period of 2008.

Prices of Ceylon tea, which had increased substantially since June 2009, reached US dollars 4.27 per kilogram in December 2009 reflecting an increase of 32 percent. The average price of rubber reached a year-on-year high of US dollars 2.53 per kilogram in December 2009. Having generated US dollars 240 million since the beginning of the year, the minor agricultural products such as pepper, sesame seeds, other oil seeds and cocoa are increasingly becoming an important source of export earnings for the country.

There has also been a significant improvement in gem exports in December 2009. Lower exports of petroleum products, rubber based products, machinery and equipment led the industrial exports to decline in December 2009.