Earnings from workers’ remittances and tourism last year and in the first two months this year continued to cushion the adverse impact of the trade deficit, a Central Bank release stated.
Workers’ remittances increased by 3.7 percent to USD 7.2 billion last year and increased by 1.4 percent to USD 571.6 million in January this year. Meanwhile, earnings from tourism grew by 18.0 percent to USD 3.4 billion in 2016 and by 6.4 percent to USD 715.2 million in the first two months of this year.
However, earnings from tourism declined by 0.1 percent to USD 338.1 million in February this year.
The number of tourist arrivals grew by 14.0 percent to 2,050,832 last year and increased by 6.4 percent to 416, 877 during the first two months of this year. However, the number of arrivals dropped by 0.1 percent to 197,517 in February this year.
The tourism industry targets 2.3 million arrivals this year.
The trade deficit widened to USD 9.1 billion in 2016 from USD 8.4 billion in the previous year. Expenditure on imports increased by 2.5 percent and export earnings contracted by 2.2 percent during the year.
The trade deficit continued to widen in the first month this year as well with import expenditure rising by 13.2 percent and export earning declining by 1.1 percent.
The Export Development Board, the apex body for export development, is due to launch the national strategy for export development shortly. Export earning have been dropping since the first half of 2015.
- LF