Maintaining the growth momentum, earnings from exports increased further registering a double-digit growth in October 2017.
This was mainly due to higher earnings from industrial exports reflecting the increase in garment exports to the USA and the EU market. Garment exports to the USA increased by 14.7%, in October 2017 while those to the EU increased by 8% with the benefit of GSP+ facility taking effect reflecting increased demand for garments.
With the healthy performance registered in vegetable, fruit and nuts preparations, earnings from food, beverages and tobacco increased during the month.
Further, earnings from rubber products rose mainly due to higher earnings from export of rubber tyres.
Export earnings from petroleum products also increased significantly owing to higher export volumes and prices of bunker and aviation fuel.
Meanwhile, earnings from agricultural exports continued to increase in October 2017 as well. An impressive growth in tea exports, with a 13.3% increase in the average tea export price and 11.3% growth in the export volume, mainly contributed to higher earnings in agricultural exports. Earnings from spices increased with higher volumes and prices of cinnamon.
Reflecting the positive impact of the removal of the ban on exports of fisheries products to the EU market and the restoration of the GSP+ facility, earnings from seafood exports increased considerably with a 145%, year-on-year, growth in exports to the EU market.
In October 2017, the USA, the UK, India, Italy and Germany were the leading markets for merchandise exports of Sri Lanka accounting for about 51 per cent of total exports.
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