Exports: total value: $4.1 billion (f.o.b., 1996) commodities: textiles and apparel, tea, diamonds and other gems, rubber products, petroleum products (1995) partners: US 34%, UK 9.5%, Japan 6.2%, Germany 5.8%, Belgium-Luxembourg 5.3% (1996)
Imports: total value: $5.4 billion (c.i.f., 1996) commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles, transport equipment, petroleum, building materials, sugar, wheat (1996) partners: India 10.4%, Japan 9.1%, South Korea 6.5%, Hong Kong 6.5%, Taiwan 5.3% (1996)
Debt-external: $9.4 billion (1996)
Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $620 million (1996 est.)
Currency: 1 Sri Lankan rupee (SLRe) = 100 cents
Exchange rates: Sri Lankan rupees (SLRes) per US$1-61.479 (January 1998), 58.995 (1997), 55.271 (1996), 51.252 (1995), 49.415 (1994), 48.322 (1993)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications
Telephones: 352,681 (1997 est.); note-in addition, there are 114,888 mobile telephones (1997 est.)
Telephone system: very inadequate domestic service, but expanding with the entry of two wireless loop operators and privatization of national telephone company; good international service domestic: NA international: submarine cables to Indonesia and Djibouti; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)