Sri Lanka’s exports earnings during the month of March has declined by 10.2% year on year to earn US$ 835 million, compared to US$ 930 million earned during the same month in the last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s import bill has seen a growth of just 3.9% year on year to incur a sum of US$ 1.63 billion compared to US$ 1.697 billion spent during the same month last year.

The trade deficit for the month of March 2012 stands at US$ 861 million, an increase of 22.5% year on year, compared to a gap of US$ 703 million recorded during March 2011.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s export earnings  during the first three months of this year has declined by 1.4% thus bringing in a sum of US$ 2.63 billion compared to US$ 2.67 billion achieved during the same period of last year.

“There has been a marginal decline in export earnings in the first quarter of 2012, reflecting a 3 per cent decline in earnings from textiles and garments exports to US dollars 1,028 million, while earnings from tea exports declined by 12.3  per cent to US dollars 332 million” the Central Bank announced.

The country’s import bill during the first three months of 2012 has increased by 17% to incur US$ 5.192 billion compared to US$  4.437 billion spent during the first quarter of the last year.

Trade deficit during the reference period has widened by 44.8% to record a gap of US$ 2.55 billion.

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