Economic crisis continues to affect Sri Lankan apparel exports

07 Jun '22

2 min read

Pic: 123rf.com

The economic crisis and the accompanies political unrest in the south Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, has led to a decline in apparel exports from the country in April 2022. Manufacturers and exporters were unable to import raw materials due to forex crunch, after the country’s forex reserve depleted to alarming level in the first quarter of this year.

Sri Lanka’s apparel exports earned $408.142 million in April 2022, registering a drop of over five per cent compared to exports of $430,282 million in the previous month, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market intelligence tool TexPro.

Apparel exports fetched $456.846 million in November 2021 for Sri Lanka. This value grew to $483.478 million in December 2021. But downward trend began from January 2022, when export value fell to $478.023 million. This further dropped to $456.111 million in February, as per TexPro.

The economic crisis and political unrest intensified in Sri Lanka in first quarter of the current year, when the country defaulted to pay its international liability. The country failed to manage forex even for essential imports like oil and food.

There were reports that some textile importers too failed to pay to their international suppliers. Many exporters from south India have stopped new shipments to Sri Lanka due to non-payment of past consignments.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)