Sri Lanka's garment exports miss $5-bn mark in 2021

Exports of other made-up textile articles fetched $128.1 million during January-December 2021, registering a huge decline of 42.9 per cent year-on-year, according to the central bank’s report ‘External Sector Performance – October 2021’.

Textiles and garments exports accounted for 56.0 per cent 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 per cent to $3.067 billion, while clothing and accessories imports were up by 10.3 per cent to $221.3 million during January-December 2021.

During the month of December, Sri Lanka’s earnings from textiles and garment exports rose by 18 per cent to $533.2 million, compared to exports of $451.8 million in the same month of 2020. Expenditure on textiles and textile articles jumped by 26.9 per cent year-on-year to $297.9 million, while clothing and accessories imports shot up by 27.6 per cent to $23.4 million.

In 2020, Sri Lanka's textiles and garment exports stood at $4.423 billion, registering a steep fall of 21 per cent compared to exports of $5.596 billion in the preceding year. Of this, clothing exports fetched $3.939 billion, a fall of 24.3 per cent over $5.205 billion in 2019. On the other hand, imports of textiles and textile articles decreased by 19.7 per cent to $2.335 billion.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (RKS)