Garment exports from Sri Lanka missed the $5-bn mark and stood at $4.951 bn in 2021, registering an increase of 25.7 percent over exports of $3.939 bn in the previous year, according to the statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Textile exports increased by 37 percent year-on-year to $355.4 mn during the year.
Exports of other made-up textile articles fetched $128.1 mn during January-December 2021, registering a huge decline of 42.9 percent year-on-year, according to the Central Bank’s report ‘External Sector Performance – October 2021’. Textiles and garments exports accounted for 56.0 percent of all industrial exports from Sri Lanka during the twelve-month period, the report showed.
Imports of textiles and textile articles too rose by 31.3 percent to $3.067 bn, while clothing and accessories imports were up by 10.3 percent to $221.3 mn during January-December 2021. During the month of December, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garment exports rose by 18 percent to $533.2 mn, compared to exports of $451.8 mn in the same month of 2020. Expenditure on textiles and textile articles jumped by 26.9 percent year-on-year to $297.9 mn, while clothing and accessories imports shot up by 27.6 percent to $23.4 mn.
In 2020, Sri Lanka’s textiles and garment exports stood at $4.423 bn, registering a steep fall of 21 percent compared to exports of $5.596 bn in the preceding year. Of this, clothing exports fetched $3.939 bn, a fall of 24.3 percent over $5.205 bn in 2019. On the other hand, imports of textiles and textile articles decreased by 19.7 percent to $2.335 bn.
