“As soon as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was announced as a pandemic, we knew the borders will be closed and it will have an adverse impact on our exports,” EDB Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe told the Daily FT.
“In early April therefore, we decided to revise down the export forecast by a hefty 42% to $10.75 billion for the year. The revised target means a drop in our export earnings of about $7.75 billion compared to 2020 original forecast and also $5.39 billion from the actual exports of last year,” he added.
Before the COVID-19, the EDB set an export target of $18.5 billion for 2020, up from $16.14 billion achieved in 2019. As per the revised target EDB forecasts $7.53 billion in merchandise exports and $3.21 billion from service exports in 2020.
In April Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports plunged by 65% to $ 277.4 million, a historical decrease largely caused by the impact of shutting down factories due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first four months export earnings fell by 26% to $ 2,853 million from the corresponding period of last year.
Subasinghe said that there was no need to revise the target again unless the exports continue to decline in May and June as well.
(FT)