What Sri Lanka buys, and from whom.
Sri Lanka imported USD 12bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 18 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries Sri Lanka imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Sri Lanka is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Sri Lanka.
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1
China
Share of Sri Lanka's imports35 per centChangeup 16 per cent on 2022USD 4.2bnin 2024 -
2
India
Share of Sri Lanka's imports23 per centChangeup 16 per cent on 2022USD 2.8bnin 2024 -
3
Pakistan
Share of Sri Lanka's imports3 per centChangeup 18 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 295min 2024 -
4
Taiwan
Share of Sri Lanka's imports3 per centChangenew since 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 295min 2024 -
5
United States
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 75 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 275min 2024 -
6
Malaysia
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangedown 10 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 275min 2024 -
7
Germany
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 29 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 273min 2024 -
8
Italy
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 264min 2024 -
9
Japan
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 29 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 240min 2024 -
10
United Arab Emirates
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangedown 29 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 239min 2024 -
11
Indonesia
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 32 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 231min 2024 -
12
Thailand
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 23 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 227min 2024 -
13
South Korea
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 10 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 190min 2024 -
14
Vietnam
Share of Sri Lanka's imports2 per centChangeup 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 190min 2024 -
15
United Kingdom
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangeup 13 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 170min 2024 -
16
France
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangeup 116 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 162min 2024 -
17
Saudi Arabia
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangeup 58 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 97min 2024 -
18
Bangladesh
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangenew since 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 82min 2024 -
19
Spain
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangedown 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 71min 2024 -
20
Turkey
Share of Sri Lanka's imports1 per centChangedown 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 69min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Sri Lanka with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is China's part of everything Sri Lanka imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.