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| Sri Lanka's trade gap narrows from Jan to Sept |
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Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 22-Nov-2008 13:53 hrs |
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| A cobbler in Colombo. Sri Lanka's trade deficit narrowed during the nine months to September, as a slowdown in the global economy hurt export sales |
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Sri Lanka's trade deficit narrowed during the nine months to September, as a slowdown in the global economy hurt export sales, official data showed Saturday.. The nation's trade deficit from January to September widened 88.1 percent to 4.61 billion dollars from 2.45 billion dollars reported in the same period 2007, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said.. The trade deficit in September widened 103.0 percent to 582.5 million dollars from 287.0 million dollars a year earlier, the bank said.. The better performance was driven by tea and rubber exports, despite a drop in recent global demand for commodities, it said.. Sri Lanka, the world's biggest exporter of tea after Kenya, earned 995.2 million dollars from January to September, up from 727.6 million dollars over the same period in 2007, the bank said.. "Sri Lanka's tea prices, which reached record high levels in recent times, decreased from the third week of September onwards as certain buyers took on a 'wait and see' attitude, in anticipation of further price reductions.". Clothing exports, Sri Lanka's top money spinner, grew at a slower pace of 2.8 percent, earning 2.52 billion during the nine months to September this year, due to poor demand from the US and Europe, the bank said.. "The US and other major export destination markets had been grappling with what has been dubbed as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s," it said.. Imports from January to September rose to 10.76 billion dollars, up from 8.04 billion dollars over the same period a year ago.. A net oil importer, Sri Lanka bought 2.79 billion dollars of crude oil in the first nine months of this year, up 33.1 percent from 1.47 million dollars in the same period a year earlier.. Remittances from Sri Lankans working in Asia and the Gulf topped 2.2 billion dollars for the nine months to September this year, which helped the overall balance of payments to record a surplus of 173 million dollars, the bank said. — AFP
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