Sri Lanka’s foreign worker remittances coming through the official banking channels showed a slight increase in May 2022 to US $ 304.1 million up from US $ 248.1 million in April 2022.
However, the official remittances for May are down by over 33 percent compared to the same period in 2021. During May last year, the country received US $ 460.1 million in remittances.
2021 saw the least amount of foreign remittances Sri Lanka received in 10 years. This year so far though, remittances have seen far lower values compared to 2021.
The alarming decrease in worker remittances, which is one of the main sources of foreign currency revenue, has contributed to worsening Sri Lanka’s crisis further, with the country struggling to pay for essential items such as fuel, gas and medicine.
Sri Lanka usually receives around US $ 7 billion in remittances per year from expatriate workers. However, so for this year it has only received just over US $ 1.3 billion for the period from January to May. (NewsWire)