According to the statistics by Sri Lanka Customs, from January to July of 2010, the commodity import & export amounted to US$10.91 billion with a year-on-year increase of 20.4%. The export was US$4.26 billion and its import was US$6.65 billion, up by 10.5% and 27.7% year on year respectively. The trade deficit was US$2.39 billion, up by 76.6%.

In July, commodity import & export reached US$1.65 billion, up by 8.1%, of which US$0.64 billion was the export and US$1 billion was the import, down by 1.8% and up by 15.6% respectively. The trade deficit was US$0.36 billion, up by 69.3%.

From January to July, Sri Lanka-China bilateral trade amounted to US$0.72 billion, up by 36.8%, of which, Sri Lanka’s export to China was US$396.39 billion up by 37%, accounting for 0.9% of its total export, 0.2 percentage point up; Sri Lanka’s import from China was US$0.68 billion, up by 36.8%, accounting for 10.2% of its total import, up by 0.7 percentage point. Sri Lanka-China trade deficit was US$0.64 billion, up by 36.8%.

By July, China was Sri Lanka’s third largest import source, following India and Singapore, and ranked 23rd in export market, while it was 22nd in last month.