Press Release 

External Sector Performance – September 2014

Overview

External sector sustained its growth momentum with expanding external trade activities in September 2014. Since July 2014, the expenditure on imports continued to rise reflecting the rebound of investment goods imports in particular. As the cumulative earnings on exports outweighed the cumulative expenditure on imports, the trade deficit during the first nine months of 2014 narrowed, while tourist earnings and workers’ remittances continued to be stable sources of inflows improving the current account of the Balance of Payments (BOP). Inflows to the financial account in the form of project loans to the government and inflows to the banking sector continued to strengthen the BOP resulting in a healthy surplus in the overall BOP during the first nine months of 2014, despite some volatility in the government securities and equity markets.