As against a 6% decline in 2022, services exports last year shot up by 63% to surpass the $ 3 billion mark. Merchandised exports on the other hand, declined by 9.5% to $ 11.85 billion, statistics from the Export Development Board revealed.

Robust performance by the services sector helped Sri Lanka finish 2023 with $ 14.95 billion in total exports, down marginally by 0.39% from $ 14.99 billion in the previous year.

The highest performance of total exports was $ 15.91 billion in 2018. However, 2023 performance was also far below the original target of $ 18.51 billion.

The services sector also beat the original forecast of $ 2.58 billion for 2023. Merchandise exports target was $ 16 billion.

In 2023, the value of ICT exports is estimated to have increased by 13.2 % to $ 1.26 billion. Construction, and transport and logistics services exports are forecasted to have increased as well, according to the EDB.