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Reaffirming its resilience, the export sector has achieved the fourth consecutive month of over $ 1 billion performance in September.
Finance Ministry sources told the Daily FT that as per provisional data, exports in September amounted $ 1.006 billion. The sector has been achieving over $ 1 billion in monthly performance
since June.
With the latest performance, the first nine months’ exports amounted to $ 8.8 billion, up 19% from the corresponding period of last year.
Officials are confident exports in the remaining three months of 2021 will be well above $ 1 billion, and if it turns out to be so, Sri Lanka would have achieved the set target of $ 12 billion for exports this year. With services exports the total exports target is $ 16 billion, and in the first eight months, services exports have grown by 33% to 2.18 billion.
Imports in September had reduced to $ 1.48 billion, below the monthly average forecast of $ 1.6-1.7 billion. Sources said import value would have reduced further if not for the highest cost of oil, COVID vaccinations and pharmaceutical imports.
The resultant trade deficit in September is estimated at $ 483 million, lowest for the month since 2017.
In July, imports were up 32% YOY to $ 1.7 billion and the first seven months figure was up 31% to $ 11.7 billion.
Sources said if imports continue to grow at a lesser pace, the trade deficit could be lowered to $ 7.4 billion in 2021. Up to end-July, the deficit was $ 4.9 billion as against $ 3.4 billion last year.
