Sri Lanka’s combined merchandise and services exports passed US$10 billion in the first seven months of 2026, the Export Development Board said on Monday — the first time the country has reached that mark by the end of July.
EDB Chairman and Chief Executive Mangala Wijesinghe disclosed the figures at a media briefing at the Department of Government Information, Ada Derana reported.
The numbers
Total export earnings from goods and services reached an estimated US$10,487.80 million between January and July, a 5.5% increase on the same period in 2025, according to Lanka Business Online and NewsFirst.
Merchandise exports remained the larger share at US$8,188.32 million, up 5.05% year on year. Services exports came to an estimated US$2,299.48 million, up 7.02% — the faster-growing of the two.
For July alone, NewsFirst reported merchandise exports of US$1.29 billion, a marginal decline of 1.3% against July 2025, while services exports rose 3.75% to an estimated US$351.92 million. Combined July earnings were about US$1.64 billion, 2.63% above the same month last year. Those monthly figures rest on provisional Sri Lanka Customs data together with estimated values for gems and jewellery and for petroleum products.
Two different totals in circulation
The outlets do not agree on the headline figure. Lanka Business Online and NewsFirst both give US$10.49 billion. Ada Derana reported the total as US$10.437 billion, attributing it to Wijesinghe at the same briefing, and said it was the first time the country had recorded that figure over seven months.
The board’s own component figures settle which is internally consistent: US$8,188.32 million in merchandise plus US$2,299.48 million in services comes to US$10,487.80 million exactly, matching the higher total. LankaNewz has not established the origin of the lower figure, and the EDB has not published a correction.
The gap is about US$51 million — immaterial to the milestone itself, but enough to matter to anyone citing a precise number.
Context
The July merchandise dip is the one soft point in the figures: goods exports fell slightly against July 2025 even as the seven-month cumulative total rose. Services growth offset it, lifting the combined monthly result back into positive territory.
The milestone should be read against the board’s own target. At the EDB’s 47th anniversary ceremony on August 1, Wijesinghe said the board expected to reach a record US$19 billion in export revenue by the end of 2026.
Measured against that target, the seven-month total leaves about US$8.5 billion to be earned in the remaining five months of the year — roughly US$1.70 billion a month, against the US$1.64 billion recorded in July. The comparison is LankaNewz’s own, drawn from the EDB’s published figures; no outlet set the milestone against the annual target, and none reported whether Wijesinghe restated it on Monday.
No outlet published a breakdown by product or destination market, though the EDB released sectoral and regional charts alongside the figures.
