ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s official remittances rose 23 p.c to 697.3 million {dollars} in July 2025, whereas the entire within the first seven months reached 4.44 billion {dollars} rising 19.5 p.c from a yr in the past, central financial institution information confirmed, with extra folks leaving to work overseas.
The employee remittances hit a six-year excessive in 2024 after a document quantity from the island nation’s labour power left the nation looking for overseas jobs amid Sri Lanka’s restoration from an unprecedented financial disaster, official information confirmed.
In 2024 full yr remittances rose 10.1 p.c to six.57 billion {dollars}, from practically 6 billion within the earlier yr, the Central Financial institution information confirmed.
Employee remittances are one of many prime overseas trade income earners for the island nation which continues to be recovering from an unprecedented financial disaster hit in 2022.
The remittances have risen constantly after the central financial institution gave up a parallel trade charge regime, which compelled most expatriates to modify casual Undiyal and Hawala cash switch strategies.
The island nation has been within the means of sending extra migrant staff specializing in professionals to usher in greater overseas trade for the reason that nation declared chapter in 2022.
Employee remittances coming by official channels fell sharply in 2021 after many expatriates switched to casual cash transferring channels as they got greater charges than formal banking channels.
The transfer got here after the Central Financial institution printed to sterilize interventions and hold a coverage charge down, triggering parallel trade charges, which have been settled exterior the formal banking system.
From April 2022, the rates of interest have been raised by unprecedented ranges, slowing credit score and the necessity to print cash to maintain charges down. Later, the Central Financial institution began its dovish financial coverage. (Colombo/August 09/2025)
