Statistics released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka show that in the first six months of 2021, Sri Lanka’s textile and garment exports increased by 28% to US$2.487 billion compared with the same period in 2020. Textile exports increased by 47.8% to US$157 million, and garment exports increased by 30.8% to US$2.267 billion.
The country’s central bank stated in the “Foreign Trade Performance in June 2021” report that the export volume of other textile products was US$63.3 million, a 39% decrease from the same period in 2020.
The report also pointed out that during this period, textile and garment exports accounted for 56.43% of Sri Lanka’s total industrial exports.
In the first six months of 2021, the import value of textiles and products increased by 36.2% to US$1.451 billion, while the import value of ready-made clothing and accessories fell by 5.1% to US$105 million.
Sri Lanka’s textile and garment exports increased by 2.9% to US$416 million in June 2021 (exports in the same month last year were US$404 million); the import value of textiles and products was higher than In the same period last year, the import value increased by 57.5% to US$277 million, while the import value of ready-made clothing and accessories decreased by 14.3% to US$15 million.
Sri Lanka’s textile and garment exports in 2020 were US$4.423 billion, a sharp drop of 21% compared with the export value in 2019 (US$5.596 billion). Among them, the export value of ready-made garments was US$3.939 billion, down 24.3% from US$5.205 billion in 2019; the import value of textiles and products fell by 19.7% to US$2.335 billion.