COLOMBO: The Central Bank said a significant decline in expenditure on vehicle imports, followed by fuel and wheat imports, contributed largely to this reduction.
Reflecting the impact of policy measures adopted by the government to curtail vehicle imports, the expenditure on personal motor vehicles declined by 63.7 percent.
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Importation of motor cars, hybrid electric vehicles, motor cycles, buses, agricultural tractors and auto-trishaws declined significantly during the month.
Import expenditure on fuel declined by 18.6 percent to 142 million US dollars during the month mainly due to the drop in average import prices of crude oil and coal together with the significant reduction in import volumes of refined petroleum products.
In line with the drop in oil prices in the international market, the average import price of crude oil declined to 46.10 US dollars per barrel in July 2016 from 50.95 US dollars per barrel in the previous month and 60.49 US dollars per barrel in July 2015.
Workers’ remittances declined by 4.4 per cent to 572.8 million US dollars in July 2016 from 599.3 million US dollars in July 2015.
