Export earnings decline by 7%

Colombo (News 1st): Earnings from exports have declined by 7% year on year, during the month of July 2019, pushing the trade deficit to further widen by US$ 401 million when compared with June 2019. In July 2019, foreign investments in the CSE recorded a notable inflow of US$ 44 million, however, during the year up to July, inflows to the stock exchange have declined by 32%, compared to the corresponding period last year. During the period up to July this year, the total foreign direct investment amounted to US$ 262 million, a decline of approximately 22% compared to the corresponding period last year. Foreign investments in government securities recorded a net outflow of US$ 33 million in July 2019. On a cumulative basis, net outflows from the government securities market amounted to US$ 129 million during the first seven months of the year. CEO of the JB Securities Limited Murtaza Jafferjee said;

"Exports declined by US$ 75 million, which were mainly comprised of agro exports, US$ 14 million was from tea and spice contributed US$ 8 million. And the balance was petroleum products,down by US$ 25 million because prices dropped. And talking about transport equipment, declined by about Rs. 25 million. Last year a naval vessel was exported to Japan and this year there were no such exports. On the import side, vehicle imports were down by US$42 million. Fuel was down US$ 31 million. There was also a significant increase in the inflows to the equity market in July. Most of that increase was due to a transfer of LOLC finance to a foreign entity. I believe the local holding company transferred it to an overseas entity. This accounted for the bulk of the inflow to the stock exchange. Regarding vehicle registrations, relative to last year there is a continuation of the decline in vehicle registrations."