Sri Lanka’s exports grew by six percent in the first four months of 2026 against the same period a year earlier despite the global drag from the Middle East military conflict, Export Development Board Chairman Mangala Wijesinghe said, adding that the country was on track to surpass last year’s record revenue.
Wijesinghe told NewsFirst on Saturday that the trend gave the country a “strong possibility” of exceeding the 2025 full-year target — which itself represented the highest export revenue Sri Lanka has ever recorded. The board did not publish the underlying value figure for the four-month period in the briefing.
The Jan–Apr growth rate is a separate framing from the Rs. $5.78 billion four-month earnings disclosure issued by the EDB on May 31 under former Plantation Minister Samantha Vidyaratne. That earlier release reported $1.38 billion in April export earnings alone. The Wijesinghe statement reframes the same period as a growth rate versus 2025, with the Middle East war — which sparked the Hormuz shipping disruption — cited as the principal external headwind.
The Saturday update lands alongside warnings from the Central Bank that the current account has tipped into deficit in April under the weight of an $886 million monthly fuel bill, and a rupee that has slid 5.4% year-to-date against the dollar. Export performance is a critical counterweight to the country’s external imbalances, and a sustained six-percent expansion rate would mark the second consecutive year of record-setting earnings for the EDB.
The board’s full Jan–Apr 2026 revenue figure, sectoral breakdown and any forecast for the second-half outlook were not disclosed in the Saturday briefing.
