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Leading News from Sri Lanka ::
Nov 25, Colombo: Sri Lanka's cumulative trade gap in the first nine months of this year narrowed by 60 percent to USD 1.848 billion, the Central Bank said today in is monthly performance review.
For the ninth consecutive month the trade deficit fell in September 2009 by 62.2 percent to USD 220 million.
According to the data released by the Central Bank the export earnings which increased from April to August declined 12.8 percent in September to USD 568 million following the seasonal trend. The decline is attributed to the lower exports of garments and textiles, fish, machinery and equipments.
However, tea exports performed well despite the drop in production. Sri Lanka's tea production suffered from the strike by the plantation workers earlier this year and the heavy rains.
Expenditure on imports declined by 36.1 per cent to USD 789 million in September 2009, reflecting lower demand across all three major categories of imports, the Bank reported.
The gross official reserves have risen to USD 5.2 billion by the end of last week, the Bank said, adding that the rise is due to the foreign exchange received by the bank for the last eight months which amounted to USD 2.837 billion and to the USD 331 million received as the second installment of the IMF loan.
Private remittances, mainly from Sri Lankan expatriates, have risen 10.3 percent in the first nine months to $2.48 billion, the Central Bank reported.
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