Sri Lanka’s external sector recovered further in July 2020 supported by an increase in merchandise exports and increased workers’ remittances amidst reduced merchandise imports. Several notable achievements were observed in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earnings from merchandise exports surpassed US dollars 1 billion in July for the first time since January 2020 and recorded a positive year-on-year growth for the first time since February 2020. As expected, merchandise imports remained subdued with the continuation of restrictions imposed on the importation of non essential goods. A substantial increase was observed in workers’ remittances in July 2020, recording the highest amount of monthly remittances since January 2018. Meanwhile, the level of gross official reserves of the country increased to US dollars 7.1 billion by end July 2020 with the receipt of the SAARCFINANCE swap facility from the Reserve Bank of India.

The “Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka – 2020” an annual publication of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, is now available for public access.

Marking the 70th Anniversary of CBSL, this year, Statistics Department restructured the layout of the publication for ease of reference, while adding more statistics to enrich its content. Accordingly, the new version consists of statistical tables categorised under eight major areas, i.e. ‘National Accounts’, ‘Economic and Social Infrastructure’, ‘Prices, Wages and Employment’, ‘External Trade and Finance’, ‘Government Finance’, ‘Money and Capital Markets’, ‘Financial  Sector’ and statistics of other countries.

The publication is available in both printed and web versions and will be a useful collection of information for anyone who is interested in socio-economic statistics.