2015-02-10
Sri Lanka's merchandise exports continued on its growth trend in 2014 to a total of over US$ 11 billion with an increase of 9 percent in the month of December, the Export Development Board (EDB) reported.
According to the latest data from the EDB, Sri Lanka's exports for 2014 rose 6.67 percent from the previous totaling US$11.079 billion. The figure, which only represents earnings from provisional merchandise, is expected to rise when the service exports values included.
Earnings from Textiles and Apparels increased 9.26 percent in 2014 from the previous year and amounted to US$ 4.9 Billion, while earnings from industrial products rose 6.1 percent to US$ 8 billion in 2014.
Tea exports rose 5.43 percent to earn US$1.6 billion, agriculture products increased by 9 percent to US$2.7 billion and manufactured products up by 9 percent to earn US$ 2.4 billion.
Coconut exports up by 49 percent to total US$ 538 million while fisheries increased by 8.5 percent to US$ 265 million.
Natural rubber declined by 36 percent to US$ 46 million, while other export crops dropped by 3 percent to US$ 506 million. Diamonds and gems too experienced a decline of 15 percent to US$ 372 million, according to EDB figures.
On a monthly basis, in December2014 provisional monthly exports not including the service exports increased 8.72 percent across the board from a year ago.
Apparel exports in December rose by 7.3 percent to US$ 450 million, industrial products rose by 9.7 percent to US$ 734 million, manufacturing exports rose by 22 percent to US$ 234 million, Agriculture exports rose by 5 percent to US$239 million, tea by 1.5 percent to US$138 million, natural rubber up by 50 percent to US$ 2.79 million, other export crops grew by 26 percent to US$ 58 million, and fisheries up by 7.8 percent to US$ 22.83 million.
However, coconut exports declined by 8 percent to US$ 40 million and diamonds, gems and jewellery declined by 11percent to $25 million.
