Sri Lanka\u2019s external current account recorded a surplus of $ 133 million in August following four consecutive months of deficits. The surplus was supported by the lower trade deficit compared to recent months, reflecting lower import expenditure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current account recorded a cumulative deficit of $ 291 million during January-August, reflecting pressures on the external sector stemming from the escalation of the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a year-on-year basis, the merchandise trade deficit widened in August 2026, driven by higher import expenditure and lower export earnings. Meanwhile, the cumulative trade deficit widened to $ 7.2 billion during January\u2013August 2026, compared to $ 4.3 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monthly fuel import expenditure declined for the fourth consecutive month in August 2026. Cumulative fuel import expenditure amounted to approximately $ 4 billion during January\u2013August 2026, recording a 61.6% (year-on-year) increase compared to the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Expenditure on motor vehicle imports, including both personal and commercial vehicles, amounted to $ 189 million in August 2026, recording a 24.2% decline compared to August 2025. Meanwhile, cumulative expenditure on motor vehicle imports amounted to $ 1,684 million during January\u2013August 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The terms of trade deteriorated on a year-on-year basis in August 2026, as import prices increased at a faster pace than export prices. Similarly, the terms of trade deteriorated during January\u2013August 2026 compared to the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The services account recorded a surplus of $ 220 million in August 2026, a 24.4% reduction compared to August 2025. With the continued moderation in the monthly services account surplus, the cumulative services account surplus declined by 21.4% to $ 2.1 billion during January-August 2026 on a year-on-year basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tourist arrivals declined by 3.3% year-on-year in August 2026. Total arrivals during January-August 2026 declined by 2.0%, compared to the corresponding period of 2025. Meanwhile, tourism earnings were estimated at $ 264 million in August 2026, reflecting a 2.1% increase from a year earlier. Cumulative tourism earnings during January-August 2026 declined by 10.0% to $ 2.1 billion, compared to the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Workers\u2019 remittances increased by 10.0% year-on-year to $ 749 million in August. Consequently, cumulative remittances during January-August rose by 19.8% on a year-on-year basis to $ 6.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign investment in the government securities market recorded a net inflow of $ 70.2 million, while foreign investment in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), including both primary and secondary market transactions, recorded a net outflow of $ 58.1 million during August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gross official reserves (GOR), including the swap facility with the People\u2019s Bank of China (PBOC), increased to $ 6.9 billion by end August, supported by foreign exchange purchases by the Central Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By end-September, the Sri Lankan Rupee depreciated by 6.3% against the US Dollar on a year-to-date basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: The Morning <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka\u2019s external current account recorded a surplus of $ 133 million in August following four consecutive months of deficits. The surplus was supported by the lower trade deficit compared to recent months, reflecting lower import expenditure. The current account […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18016,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18014\/revisions\/18016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisenews.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}