In the first ten months of last year, ending 31st October 2016, apparel exports from Sri Lanka to the US have seen a negative trend after being positive in the first nine months. During the period under review, Sri Lanka’s apparel exports to the US registered a decline of (-) 2.91 per cent to US $ 1.66 billion as against US $ 1.71 billion in the first ten months of 2015.
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However, in the period January-September 2016 Sri Lankan exports to the US registered positive growth rate of 1.64 per cent to the US $ 8. 18 billion as against US $ 8.05 billion over the same period prior year. In these nine months, the country’s exports to the EU were also up in terms of volume but in terms of values it declined by (-) 5.84 per cent to Euro 1.13 billion versus approximately Euro 2.0 billion in the corresponding period of 2015.