Sri Lanka’s merchandise export earnings reached US$1,377 million in September, a 21 percent increase on the same month last year and the highest monthly total on record, according to Central Bank data reported by EconomyNext on Friday.
The figure surpasses the previous peak of US$1,302 million set in July 2025.
Industrial exports drove the record
Industrial exports rose 27.7 percent year on year in the month. Two categories account for most of the acceleration:
| Category | September 2026 | Change y/y |
|---|---|---|
| Petroleum products | US$149.9 million | +130% |
| Machinery and mechanical appliances | US$70 million | +72% |
Neither is a traditional Sri Lankan export line, and neither reflects new productive capacity in the conventional sense. The petroleum figure is driven by re-exports — fuel moving through Sri Lankan ports rather than produced in the country — supported by higher maritime transshipment traffic and bunkering demand. The machinery growth is attributed to the country’s position in expanding regional manufacturing supply chains.
For the first nine months of the year, merchandise export earnings came to US$10,754.2 million, up 5.4 percent.
How this fits the EDB numbers published last week
This is a different release from the Export Development Board data covered here on Monday, and the two measure different things. The EDB reported total exports of US$13.61 billion for the nine months, up 5.04 percent — a figure that includes services exports such as ICT and business process management, construction, financial services and logistics, estimated at US$2.85 billion.
The two agencies agree closely on the merchandise component: the EDB put January–September merchandise exports at just over US$10.76 billion and growth at 5.35 percent, against the Central Bank’s US$10,754.2 million and 5.4 percent. EconomyNext’s report describes the US$10,754.2 million figure as “total exports”; it is the merchandise total, and is about US$2.85 billion short of exports as a whole.
The constraint the record does not remove
EconomyNext sets the record against structural limits that it says continue to cap Sri Lanka’s export expansion: an export basket still heavily concentrated in apparel, tea and rubber; high domestic energy and logistics costs that weaken price competitiveness; non-tariff barriers; shallow integration into global value chains; delays in investment approvals; and limited capital for advanced research and development.
On that reading a monthly record built substantially on transshipped fuel is a throughput result as much as a manufacturing one.
Not reported
The report does not give the September trade deficit, import figures, or the apparel and tea numbers for the month. It does not say on what date the Central Bank released the data, and the bank’s own external sector release could not be retrieved by this desk.
Sourcing note. This rests on a single verified newsroom. No other outlet on this site’s verified list carried the Central Bank monthly-record story; the Daily FT piece returned by searches on the same subject is the EDB release of 26 October, already covered. The Central Bank’s own page for the September external sector performance returns an access error to this desk, so the primary could not be cited directly.