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| Sunday, 12 December 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Exports increase Export earnings increased by 36 per cent to US$ 582m in October 2004 outperforming the 5 per cent growth recorded in the corresponding period in 2003, the Central Bank said. This is the second highest monthly export earning ever recorded. However, expenditure on imports grew by 14 per cent recording US dollars 715 m in October 2004, which includes petroleum imports of US$ 97 million. The resulting trade deficit was US$ 133m. During the first ten months of 2004 export earnings increased by 12 per cent to US dollars 4,725 million as compared with export earnings of US$ 4,230 m in the same period in 2003. The growth in expenditure on imports tapered as expected amounting to US dollars 6,429 million, recording a growth of 20 per cent from US dollars 5,370 million in the first ten months of 2003 largely due to higher petroleum bills, investment goods and intermediate imports of textiles. These high imports of textiles indicate high growth in the export of garments in the future. The trade deficit in the first ten months amounted to US dollars 1,704 million. The trade deficit grew by US dollars 564 million compared with the deficit in the first ten months of 2003, mostly due to the increase in petroleum imports by US dollars 274 million in the first ten months of 2004. In the next two months of 2004, export growth is projected to improve further with better performance of garments, tea, and rubber exports. Import growth is expected to taper off, narrowing down the growth in the trade deficit. The Impact of the trade deficit will be mitigated with improvements in the services sector earnings, worker remittances and with new financing facilities from India and Iran to finance oil imports, Central Bank said. |
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