Sri Lanka’s terms of trade has deteriorated by 10.3 per cent, (Y-o-Y), to 77.6 index points in April 2022 due to the increased discrepancy in indices of export unit value and import unit value, according to weekly economic indicators issued by the Central bank of Sri Lanka.
The export unit value index increased by 11.6 per cent, (Y-o-Y), in April 2022 mainly due to higher prices registered in industrial exports. The import unit value index in April 2022 increased by 24.4 per cent, (Y-o-Y), due to higher prices mainly recorded in intermediate goods.
Meanwhile, Purchasing Managers’ Indices for both Manufacturing and Services activities indicated a subdued performance in May 2022 on a month-on-month basis, recording 50.3 and 42.4 index values, respectively.
During the period under review (11.06.2022 to 17.06.2022), crude oil prices showed a mixed performance. At the beginning of the period, crude oil prices increased owing to data showing a decline in OPEC production. However, prices later declined due to concerns of fall in demand after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates notably. Overall, during the period under review, Brent and WTI prices decreased by US dollars 0.73 per barrel and US dollars 1.70 per barrel, respectively.
Some other key indicators are as follows:Weekly AWPR for the week ending 17th June 2022 decreased by 33 bps to 21.27 per cent compared to the previous week.Broad money (M2b) expanded by 20.0 per cent, on a Y-o-Y basis, in April 2022.Net Credit to the government from the banking system increased by Rs. 4.6 bn in April 2022*.Outstanding credit to public corporations increased by Rs. 177.2 bn in April 2022.
Outstanding credit extended to the private sector increased by Rs. 219.3 bn in April 2022.The sharp depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee since March 2022 remains the key reason for the augmentation of monetary and credit aggregates in rupee terms in March 2022 and April 2022.The reserve money increased compared to the previous week mainly due to increase in deposits held by the commercial banks with the Central Bank.The total outstanding market liquidity was a deficit of Rs. 629.002 bn by the end of this week, compared to a deficit of Rs. 680.836 bn by the end of last week.
Island.lk
, Business, ,