Sri Lanka's trade deficit widened in June driven by rising import of intermediate goods and a decline in remittances, local media citing data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) reported here Saturday.The CBSL's external sector performance report for June showed that merchandise exports and imports rose 12.6 percent and 57.2 percent respectively year-on-year in the month of June. The country's trade deficit stood at 652 million U.S. dollars, up from 161 million dollars in the same month last year. Data showed that intermediate goods like fuel, textiles and textile garments, chemical products, and base metals were major contributing factors to increased imports. Investment goods categorized as machinery and equipment rose 81 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the country's export volumes in June surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with revenue from industrial exports growing 17 percent year-on-year. However, workers remittances declined 16 percent in the month of June. Sri Lanka's gross official reserves stood at 4.1 billion U.S. dollars at the end of June, enough to cover 2.6 months of imports. The country repaid a 1 billion U.S. dollar sovereign bond in July.