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The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the effects of exchange rate movements on trade performance with reference to the Sri Lanka‐China trade relationship over the quarterly period from 1993 to 2007.

This paper tests this condition for the trade between Sri Lanka and China in two steps. First, it investigates the exchange rate movements on Sri Lanka's aggregate exports and imports between China using selected variables such as the real bilateral exchange rate change, the change in income and the exchange rate volatility. Second, this study constructs a panel regression model using Sri Lanka's sectoral exports and imports between China and tests whether exchange rate movements have detrimental effects on sectoral trade.

The main finding is that bilateral exchange rate changes and exchange rate volatility do play an active role on trade, while income growth changes have less influence in determining the total exports and imports between two countries. The analysis of data shows that changes in real bilateral exchange rate, income and exchange rate volatility are playing a major role in determining sectoral exports and imports between Sri Lanka and China. Therefore, the findings suggest that the movements of exchange rate between these two countries do have significant effects on total trade as well as sectoral trade between Sri Lanka and China.